Something in the Sun
by islandgirl33
Summary: Back in her sleepy home town for the summer Beth Greene is expecting a quiet and dull few months. Until she runs into the new mysterious deputy sheriff, Daryl Dixon, and strange things start to happen!...AU T/M
1. Chapter 1

**A/N - This is my first AU for TWD fandom, it's one of a few idea's that just popped in to my head that I will be experimenting with, if people like it, I can turn it in to a longer story? ****The plan would be for a Bethyl slow burn, but, will also feature a mystery story as a back drop! Most other characters will pop up too. (Rick is married to Andrea, as Lori didn't really fit the part I wanted for Rick's wife here.)**

**Hope you enjoy and please leave a review with feedback/suggestions, or PM me :)**

* * *

Beth Greene, let out a long breath, blowing her silky blonde hair away from her face to cool her forehead, as she sunk her chin into her hand. After flashing a smile and saying goodbye to the latest patient to leave Andrea's office, she glanced down at the blank screen on her iphone, pulling it out from where it had been tucked away under a pile of papers on her desk she could see the time on it showed it was still another good hour until the bright sun outside the window started to fade. It was proving to be another slow afternoon and she was starting to get used to the idea again that nothing happened around this place.

Beth was back in the sleepy Georgia town she had grown up in for the summer holidays from Atlanta where she had been studying nursing. She was working for the local town doctor, Andrea Grimes over the summer months while she looked for a more permeant position.

...

Drumming her pen on the edge of her key board, her eyes flicked to the empty street outside in a weak attempt to take her mind off her screen, but she was unable to stop herself as she pushed the button on her smart phone again for what must have been the hundredth time that day, lighting it up to see there were still no messages or missed calls.

"It isn't going to make it ring any faster, the more you stare at it," Andrea suddenly said, bursting out of the door to her office, arching a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at Beth, fixing her with a knowing smile as she dropped a pile of papers on to her desk.

"Oh, I err..was just," Beth responded, sounding flustered as she jumped a little in embarrassment that her boss had caught her daydreaming as she swept a loose wisp of her blonde hair away from her face.

Beth liked Andrea, she had been a little intimidated by her in the first couple of weeks that she had worked for the older blonde, Andrea was so smart and glamorous, and unlike Beth she always seemed to know the right thing to say. But she had turned out to be a fair boss and had been good to Beth, gossiping with her in the mornings before the patients arrived, giving her advice about her nursing degree amongst other things, as well as letting her take time off when she had needed it, no questions asked. Beth couldn't have asked for more.

"Beth, it's okay, I was your age once too, not so long ago," Andrea said with a chuckle, and she perched against the side of Beth's desk, from where it was placed at the centre of the reception to her office.

Beth gulped, taking in a waft of Andrea's expensive perfume."It's just, he said he'd text, and that was over a week ago now, he's probably been busy or something, so I was just wondering whether maybe I should just text him or something?" Beth asked a little breathlessly, fiddling with her nails, her big inquisitive blue eyes looking up to meet Andrea's green ones straight on.

Beth honestly had no idea why Zach the good-looking and funny guy she'd had a date with the week before, hadn't called. He'd seemed so nice and interested in her, she'd felt certain he would. But every night since their date, she'd gone to bed filled with disappointment that she'd heard nothing from him. It wasn't even as though she liked him all that much, but ever since her childhood boyfriend Jimmy had broken her heart, he'd been the first guy that had seemed genuinely interested in actually getting to know her and not just fooling around.

"This is silly, I don't even know if I like him that much anyway," Beth added, glancing at Andrea's smiling face. Wishing she could be more like the pretty doctor, with her perfect curvy figure in her designer blouse, charcoal grey pencil skirt and christian louboutin heels. Andrea was a far cry from the mess Beth always felt, struggling to find anything to suit her shapeless figure, no wonder she was the kind of girl guys didn't call back, she thought miserably.

"Beth, he'll text you," Andrea said confidently. "It might not be straight away, but sooner or later, he'll call, because they always do, once they realise what they're missing."

She paused, her smile widening, "But, Beth, when he does, you're just going have to work out if you _actually_ want to text _him_ back," she said, with a sparkle in her eye.

"You really think?" Beth questioned quietly, a puzzled look crossing her pretty features.

"Uh-huh," Andrea replied, "But, even if he doesn't, someone else, someone better, will come along soon enough anyway. You're a catch, Beth."

Beth blushed, she wasn't so sure she agreed with her boss.

"Anyway, I just came out to say the last patient cancelled, so you can go home early," Andrea said.

Beth nodded, smiling at her boss, "Thanks."

"Although, I do have favour to ask. How do you feel about babysitting tonight? I know it's last minute, but Amy is working, and Rick's got the night off for the first time in ages..…" Andrea said, with hopeful eyes.

"Sure, I'd be happy to, I don't have any plans," Beth replied, her eyes wandering again to the the locked screen of her phone.

….

_'"Somewhere, over the rainbow, skies are blue, And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true," _Beth sang softly, placing a sleeping baby Judith down in to her crib, kissing her lightly on her forehead, before tiptoeing out the room, closing the door gently behind her.

Walking across the landing, Beth glanced in to Andrea and Rick's bedroom, it was like most things in their home, immaculate, fresh and stylish. She turned to walk down the stairs, thinking how she couldn't help but feel slightly jealous of her boss, she seemed to have it all, a successful career, married to the handsome town sheriff, with a gorgeous baby daughter and beautiful home.

Beth sighed, wondering whether she would ever have those things. Right now, she felt as though she would be alone forever, painfully aware of the cold metal of her phone from where it was pressed against her thigh in her shorts pocket, reminding her there was still no word from Zach.

Scooping her long blonde hair up into a messy ponytail, she made her way in to the kitchen, opening the fridge to help herself to a drink, welcoming the sharp blast of ice cold air against her warm skin. When she suddenly heard the doorbell ring.

She froze, Rick and Andrea hadn't said they were expecting anyone.

Making her way to the door, she wondered whether possibly it was Amy, Andrea's younger sister and Beth's friend, although Beth was fairy certain Amy had said she was working at their local diner that night. She opened the door to see it wasn't Amy, but Daryl Dixon stood there. Rick's quiet and surly deputy sheriff.

"Hi,' she said surprised, her voice a little wobbly, her big blue eyes wide and blinking, as she looked at him stood in front of her, the glow from the setting sun behind him bouncing off his masculine face, and she wasn't quite sure why but Beth's heart rate suddenly sped up dramatically.

In the short time she'd been home for the holidays, she knew him well enough to say hello to, but that was about it, he was pretty unfriendly and by all accounts had caused quite a few heads to turn, when Rick had taken him on as his deputy.

He nodded at her in response, a little hair falling over his eyes as a surprised look crossed his face too, he clearly hadn't been expecting to see her there. He moved his head and his dark hair flipped back against his forehead, "Rick in?" he asked, in a low gruff voice.

"No, they've gone out," Beth replied, aware she was still staring straight at him like an idiot.

She wasn't sure if she had ever seen him out of his sheriff's uniform before. He was wearing a simple and modern looking leather jacket over a dark blue shirt, and dark washed jeans. His eyes were a deep shade of blue. They had an intense look in them as he shifted awkwardly on the spot, catching her eye straight on for the briefest moment, before he looked away.

Beth could tell her inquisitive gaze was making him feel uncomfortable. Since she had been back, she hadn't had much to do with the quiet and mysterious new sheriff. Like most people in their small town, she had been a little surprised to hear he was Merle Dixon's brother. But not for the same reasons. Beth had only been surprised because she hadn't been aware that the loud and obnoxious Merle Dixon had a younger brother, and Daryl couldn't be more different to the brash and over confident redneck that he was related to.

He cleared his throat, looking in her direction again. "Could you see that he get's this?" he asked, his voice although rough and laced with southern drawl, was strangely quiet and polite, as he held up an A4 brown envelope.

Beth didn't respond straight away, a little taken aback with the butterflies growing in her stomach. A gentle evening breeze blowing a loose strand of her blonde hair across her face.

"Su-sure," she stammered, brushing at her hair with her fingers, she flashed him another shy smile and her eyelashes fluttered as she reached out to take the envelope from him, clumsily brushing the rough skin on his hand, causing an electric current to shoot through her as the butterflies increased and her cheeks turned a dark shade of pink.

"Thanks," he said, nodding again, his blue eyes glancing back at her through the edges of his long hair.

"You're welcome," Beth responded, her own blue eyes sparkling from where she was stood in the doorway dressed in her little denim shorts and white blouse.

Although, this was the first time she had heard him speak properly, or had any real interaction with the older guy. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't noticed him from afar. When he'd been out and about with Rick, or just around town on his own, there had been something about him that had strangely caught Beth's eye, even though he was nothing like the usual type of guys she would crush on, something about him had made her curious, he seemed so distant and mysterious. But she'd tried not to give it too much thought, due to his unapproachable vibe.

Amy had said she thought he was a little arrogant, bordering on rude, and to stay away from him. He wasn't like Shane, Rick's other deputy, who was always more than friendly and approachable.

But looking at Daryl Dixon now, Beth realised she had never noticed just how attractive he actually was. Sexy even, he was so damn sexy, she thought.

She looked away, trying not to choke on her attraction.

"You can come in, if you like, wait for them, they shouldn't be long," Beth suddenly blurted out brightly, before mentally kicking herself as she immediately saw his gaze flicker away from her. _Why would he want to come in and spend any sort of time with me?_ her insecurities flared up. He probably had far more exciting places to be.

"S'okay, thanks, if you could just see he gets that, it's quite important," he muttered, his tone serious as he looked back to the envelope.

Beth nodded, her blonde ponytail shaking, as she felt another subtle bush rise in her cheeks, "Sure," she muttered, "Sure, I will."

"Thanks," he said again, as he turned to walk silently down the steps away from the house.

Beth stared after him for a moment, before closing the door and making her way back inside, clutching the envelope tightly in her hands, she wondered what could be inside.

...

Sinking into the large comfortable sofa in Andrea and Rick's living room, Beth looked down to see the baby monitor to her side was still quiet. She had tried for the past couple of hours to concentrate on the television screen in front of her, but her mind kept wandering back to her brief encounter earlier with the new deputy sheriff, Daryl Dixon. Curiosity burning inside her.

Why had Rick taken him on, when his family had such a bad reputation?

Beth wondered just what Daryl's story was. Why he was seemingly so different to his loud mouthed, pervy brother? She also couldn't help but wonder if he was dating anyone. She was pretty sure he wasn't married, but a guy like that would certainly have a girlfriend. The thought of that, strangely caused a brief pang of jealousy to hit Beth.

Suddenly her phone lit up and vibrated from where it was still in her shorts pocket, snapping her out of her daydream. She quickly dug it out to see that it was a text from Andrea to say they were going to be late.

Placing it back into her pocket, Beth couldn't help but smile slightly as she realised for the first time in ages, she hadn't felt the need to miserably check for messages all evening.

Maybe, this summer wasn't going to be quite as dull as she had thought after all...

**Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a review :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N - Thank you so much for all the interest in this story so far! You guys are amazing, and really do encourage me to keep going with my crazy ideas! I can't tell you how much I have been loving writing this AU version of Beth &amp; Daryl so far :) But, in answer to your questions about my other stories, YES, I am very much working on them too, and hope to have updates soon. When I have the time and inspiration, I write!**

**Really hope you enjoy this next chapter. It's setting up some future action in this AU TWD town.**

* * *

Beth slid her oversized sunglasses up on top of her blonde head with one hand, as she carefully balanced the tray of coffees she'd dashed out moments earlier to get, in the other.

There were four of them in the office that day. Besides Beth and Andrea, there was Rosita, the family nurse practitioner, and Michonne, Andrea's friend who came in to deal with the accounts. It had been proving to be a busy morning, so Beth hadn't wanted to be gone too long on her coffee run.

Hurrying out of the small coffee shop, rays of dazzling sunshine bounced off her bright blonde hair as Beth made her way back along the main street that ran through the centre of their small town, and she though how quiet it was, how quiet it always was. There were a few people around, but it was a complete contrast to the bustle of the busy Atlanta streets she had become so used to back in the past three years she had been living there at university.

As she walked, an unexpected breeze suddenly blew at the hem of her short blue and white dress. Beth instinctively put her hand down to stop it from blowing up any higher and the sudden movement knocked at the hot coffees in her hand, causing one to spill slightly over her soft skin as she stumbled forwards due to the heel on her boot catching on a small crack in the pavement. She grabbed hold of the nearest tree to steady herself.

"Damn it," she muttered under her breath, swiping at the burning spilled liquid with her fingers.

Suddenly, she felt very self conscious, despite being on her own a strange feeling came over her that someone was watching her.

Turning her head, Beth's eyes wandered over to the other side of the street, where they rested on a police car parked opposite, it was shaded by a line of trees behind it, but she instantly felt a swarm of butterflies rush through her as she made out who it was sat behind the wheel. Deputy sheriff, Daryl Dixon.

His hair was falling down over his eyes again, and his face was partially hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, but he was quite clearly staring over in her direction. Beth was unsure exactly where his eyes were looking, but from his body language, she could tell he had noticed her.

She could also see that he had the same slightly aloof and moody expression that he always seemed to have when he was around town. Beth normally tried not to pay him that much attention, but this time she had no control over the sensations pulsing through her. After her very brief encounter with the enigmatic deputy sheriff the night before whilst she had been babysitting for Rick and Andrea, Beth's head had become filled with thoughts of him, and now here he was again on duty in the middle of the day. Right in front of her eyes.

Looking at him now, she couldn't deny he was gorgeous, distractingly gorgeous.

She felt her cheeks heating up as he continued to gaze her way. He was too far away to acknowledge properly. So instead, she looked away, quickening her pace as she made her way back to work, ensuring her eyes remained straight in front of her. Her fingers trembling slightly as she clutched the tray of drinks in her hand even tighter.

...

Hurrying back in to the office Beth was met by one of the local town residents, Carol Peletier and her daughter Sophia.

"Morning, Mrs Peletier," Beth said, smiling politely at the older woman.

"Oh, please, call me Carol," she replied, smiling back.

Beth continued to smile, but she couldn't help but feel sad, she always felt sad when she was around Carol Peletier.

Carol was always friendly and cheerful, but her eyes told a different story, her eyes always looked sad, which made Beth sad too. But today though, Carol had kept her eyes carefully concealed behind a pair of large dark brown sunglasses.

"I just stopped by, on the off chance Dr Grimes could see us. I know it's a long shot, but we'd really appreciate it," Carol asked, looking directly at Beth, pleading slightly.

Still clutching the tray of coffee's, Beth's smile faded, and an apologetic look crossed her pretty face, "I'm really sorry, but we're closing early today," she replied.

"Oh, of course, it's Judith's birthday, how silly of me to forget," the older woman responded, her voice trembling slightly.

Beth placed the coffee's down on the side, suddenly remembering amongst other things, she had promised to collect little Judith Grime's birthday cake on her way home later that day too, ready for the little girl's first birthday party later.

"Let me see what I can do, I'm sure we can squeeze you in somewhere if you're happy to take a seat and wait," Beth said with a new warm smile.

Sliding behind her desk, pulling her own sunglasses off her head and tossing them down on to a pile of papers, Beth quickly unlocked her computer screen to bring up Andrea's schedule for the day. She knew her boss was busy, but she also knew she would be happy to make time to see Carol and Sophia if she could.

"Thank you," Carol said gratefully, a look of relief appearing on her face.

...

"Here, have some gossip to read,' Beth said, standing up to pass them some magazines. She was genuinely glad she could be of some assistance to them. She had heard the rumours just like everyone else in their small town, about Carol Peletier's unhappy marriage, and Beth really hoped someday soon they would get some proper help.

She sighed, turning back to her computer screen, there was a lot to get through before they could close and get ready for the party later.

...

_"Happy birthday dear, Judith, happy birthday to you," _a chorus of voices sang.

...

"I can't believe she's one already," Andrea gushed, looking across with proud eyes at her baby daughter wrapped up in Rick's arms, from where they were standing next to Judith's stunning, pink princess birthday cake, the single freshly blown out candle smoking into the air.

There was a small gathering of Rick and Andrea's, friends, family and neighbours, stood around the pool in their big back yard, decorated with multi coloured balloons and pretty baby girl decorations. All looking on at the little Grime's family, celebrating their daughter's first birthday.

Beth was stood next to her friend Noah, who happened to live on the same street as Rick and Andrea, and her blue eyes were filled with emotion, watching baby Judith beaming at the excitement of her special day, clapping her chubby little hands together. Beth loved babies, she was a natural with them, and she secretly hoped to have a family of her own in the not too distant future.

"Here," a female voice said beside her, and Beth felt a nudge at her side. She glanced to her right to see her other good friend Amy, Andrea's younger sister and Judith's aunt, handing her a plastic cup full of bright orange liquid.

"It's fruit punch, but I slipped a little kick in to it," Amy added, with a wink.

Beth let out a small laugh and rolled her eyes looking from Amy back to Noah who raised his eyebrows and grinned. Amy had been Beth's best friend since high school, and out of the two of them she had always been the wild one.

"You're a bad influence," Beth muttered, holding the cup up to her lips to take a small sip, instantly recognising the strong taste of vodka as she wondered how best to dispose of it without Amy seeing.

"Thought I needed to spice things up a bit around here, get us in the party mood for when we head out in a bit, Randall's having a party, remember?" Amy said, a smile spreading across her face.

Beth groaned inwardly, trying to work up the courage to explain to Amy she wasn't really feeling in the party mood. Although, she knew her friend was desperate to go. Randall, a guy she had the hots for, had invited her specially.

Clutching her drink, Beth looked away from her friends for a second, over to where she could see her father and local town vet, Hershel Greene, was stood deep in conversation with Beth's older sister Maggie and her boyfriend Glenn. He was laughing at something Glenn was saying, nodding his head. Glenn's family owned a successful restaurant chain and were one of the wealthiest in the area. But despite his fast cars, designers clothes and expensive gifts for her sister, Beth couldn't help but think that Glenn was one of the nicest and most down to earth people she knew. He had won their father over fairly quickly and he now lived with the Greene's, back at their family farm.

Beth moved her gaze away from her family. She was happy for her sister, but she couldn't help but feel a little envious when she saw her father interacting with Maggie and Glenn like that. Beth wondered whether maybe a time would come, when Hershel Greene would be stood laughing and chatting away to a future boyfriend of her own, just like he was doing now.

She took another small sip of the pungent drink in her hand, blocking out what Amy and Noah were now talking about beside her. With a slight buzz from the alcohol, she glanced around with bright eyes, scanning the usual familiar faces at the party. There was Shane another town sheriff and his wife Lori, Andrea's friend Michonne, Bob who owned the bar in town Amy worked at, Tyrese the local football coach and his sister Sasha, Dale the friendly retired guy from next door. Then…. Beth felt a small flutter.. as her eyes unexpectedly fell on a familiar, handsome and surly looking guy in the corner. Surprisingly, it was Daryl Dixon.

Beth wasn't quite sure why, but he was the last person she would have expected to see at a one year old's birthday party.

He was out of his sheriff's uniform, wearing a leather vest over a dark coloured sleeveless shirt, exposing his toned, muscular arms, as he held a small bottle of beer, he looked a little uncomfortable with a serious look on his face as he stared straight out in front of him.

Unable to stop herself, Beth carried on looking at him almost a little dreamily, as the fluttering in her stomach increased. Before she saw him turn his head in her direction and she quickly looked away, not wanting to get caught staring, she tried to turn her attention back to Amy and Noah.

"Why is Daryl Dixon staring at you?" Amy suddenly said, stopping her conversation with Noah, turning to Beth.

"Wh-what?" Beth stammered, glancing back at him for a second, to see that Amy was right, he was glaring in her direction now, and their eyes met for the briefest of moments, before she looked away and back at her friends again. She smoothed her hair down awkwardly, feeling her cheeks burning she remembered how he had seen her nearly trip up in town earlier that day, he was probably still thinking what a clumsy idiot she was she thought cringing.

But now, despite that, her curiosity was roused.

"He here on his own?" she questioned Amy, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Why, you interested?" Amy giggled.

"Nooo," Beth quickly protested, her face reddening even more.

"Well, I expect so, he's always on his own," Amy went on to say, "He doesn't talk to many people, and with that permanent scowl and bad temper, you can see why."

"He seems alright to me, the dude's just quiet," Noah remarked, in Daryl's defence.

Amy made a face, "Quiet or rude?"

Beth looked back in Daryl's direction again, to see he was no longer looking over.

"He's a jackass, he doesn't like anyone," Amy stated. "But, looks like he might like you, Bethy," she teased, knocking Beth's arm with her drink, laughing loudly.

Beth shook her head embarrassed, laughing a little too. Unable to stop her eyes flickering back over to where Daryl was stood, to see their laughter had caught his attention and he was staring over again.

She quickly stopped laughing, feeling awkward, not wanting him to think she was some silly giggly girl.

"So, you coming to Randall's party then?" Amy said, changing the subject, downing her drink.

"I'd love to, but I've got work tomorrow and I'm not _really_ feeling in the party mood," Beth explained hesitantly.

"Zach will be there," Amy said, grinning and raising her eyebrows.

"I am _so_ over Zach," Beth responded, rolling her eyes, remembering how he still hadn't called, not that she actually cared anymore.

"Fine, well, we'll just have to have all the fun without you then," Amy said, leaning over to kiss Beth quickly on the cheek, gesturing to Noah to follow her, as he hugged Beth briefly, and put his hand up to say goodbye as they left.

...

Once they were gone, Beth looked over to see Daryl was still stood on his own. Feeling brave she wondered whether she should go up and say hello. That was what you did at parties after all, she thought, and she may have brushed off Amy's teasing, but she couldn't help but notice that her friend had been right, Daryl had been looking over earlier on.

Setting her drink down, and throwing her long glossy blonde hair behind her shoulders, she took a deep breath, working up the courage to head his way, when she stopped, noticing Carol Peletier approaching him instead. The older woman still had the same sunglasses on from earlier, and she looked to be immediately locked into a deep conversation with the rough and handsome deputy. He was looking at her giving her his full attention, and she touched his arm and smiled, causing him to smile slightly too. Beth had never seen him smile before, but it suited him, it was ever so subtle but it made his eyes twinkle, and she looked away to head inside the house instead, to see if Andrea needed any help with tidying up.

...

The natural light was fading fast as Beth made her way back to her car alone. She folded her arms against her chest as she walked, wearing just another short sundress with her brown boots, she was starting to feel a little exposed as she realised there was no-one around. Most people having left the party before her. Shivering a little, she wondered whether perhaps she should have joined Amy and Noah after all. Seeing as she was about to just head home to get into her pyjamas and watch television on her own again.

Pressing the button on her keys, she watched the lights flash on her car as she strode up to it. The same car she'd had ever since she had learned to drive.

As she got closer she noticed to the left of her car, parked up against an adjacent wall there was a motorcycle, and leaning up against it, smoking a cigarette was Daryl again. He looked deep in thought as usual, gazing straight ahead as he silently blew smoke into the night air.

He turned his head, alerted by her presence.

This was the third time Beth had seen him that day, and the third time blood had suddenly pumped around her body at an alarming speed. She knew this time she had to say something to him, feeling his eyes resting on her, as she walked past him.

"Hi," she said, peeking at him through her long eyelashes, giving him a shy smile. Feeling a familiar swirl of butterflies at the intense way he seemed to be studying her through his narrow eyes.

"Hi," he mumbled back, lowering his cigarette, sweeping at his hair with his fingers.

Beth wondered whether she should stop and start a longer conversation with him. She wanted to. She thought about what Amy had said earlier, that he was alone most of the time. This both confused and excited her. There was no denying Daryl Dixon was very good looking, in a rough and sexy kind of way. In his sheriff's deputy job too, he must have women throwing themselves at him all the time. But for some reason, this didn't seem to be the case, and Beth wondered why.

She gulped, about to say something else, but the words dried on her tongue. He really wasn't the kind of guy that it was easy to start a conversation with, so instead she smiled politely at him again, before opening the door to her car and sliding in behind the wheel.

Turning the key in the ignition she was painfully aware he was still watching her every move as she silently willed her car to start smoothly, it could be a little temperamental at times and was well overdue a service. '_Come on',_ she muttered under her breath, as the engine spluttered and died. Turning the key again, she felt her face heat up with embarrassment as she tried in vain to start up the engine.

Eventually, after the third attempt, she slowly undid her seatbelt and stepped out of the car. Wondering if maybe she had a flat battery, and whether she should call her dad or Glenn to come out and rescue her, or maybe even head back to Rick and Andrea's house, and see if they had any jump leads.

"You okay?" She heard Daryl say in a gruff voice, from where he was still stood up against his motorcycle smoking.

"Oh, I just can't get it to start, maybe it's a flat battery or something," Beth said biting her lip with an awkward smile, trying not to make too big a deal out of it she let out an embarrassed laugh, feeling for the second time that day like an idiot in front of him.

"Pop the hood," he ordered, marching straight up to the front of her car.

Beth nodded slowly in response, a little taken aback at how forceful he was.

She slipped back in to the drivers seat again, pressing the button for him her hand shook slightly as she wound down the window to poke her head out. She could see the top of his dark hair, as his head bobbed up and down and he fiddled around in her engine for a few minutes, before he raised his hand, "Start it up," he said loudly, looking up at her, his cigarette still dangling out of his mouth as he met her eye.

'Okay," Beth said, turning the key again, and this time the engine started up immediately.

"Weren't the battery," he stated, taking a long drag on his cigarette, before pulling a red rag out of his back pocket to wipe his hands.

"Th-thanks," Beth stammered, unable to stop a wide grin from forming on her face.

He nodded, his lips twitching slightly, but his eyes still serious. "No problem," he mumbled, tossing his cigarette to the floor, stamping on the butt with his boot.

Beth wanted to say something else, but instead she found herself simply saying, " Well, night then."

"Night," he grunted in response. His face looking almost as though he wanted to say something further too, but was holding back.

After carefully checking her mirrors, Beth slowly started to pull away, when Daryl put his hand up abruptly to stop her.

She immediately halted, noticing him staring down at the side of her car.

"You got a flat," he muttered.

Beth undid her seatbelt for the second time that night, turning to get out of the car again, to see what he was looking at.

Opening the door, her bare legs crashed against the exposed skin of his left forearm from where he was crouched down examining her flat tire, causing an immediate tingle to rocket through her as she quickly jumped away from him.

"Sorry," she exclaimed, her cheeks glowing pink as she steadied herself against the side of the car.

"You got a spare?" He asked, ignoring her blushes, leaping to his feet, flicking his hair out of his eyes to take a good look at her properly.

His eyes were a perfect shade of river blue and Beth was a little taken aback for a moment at how deep they were.

"Umm..yes," she forced herself to reply, looking away from his intense gaze she glanced down to see he was right, her front tire did look distinctly flat. She moved to the trunk of her car to locate the spare tire, jack and flashlight, her dad had made sure she always carried around with her at all times in case she got into trouble.

"Shouldn't be driving round with a tire like that," he lectured, as he crouched down again, setting to work loosening the nuts on the wheel.

When he'd finished he held his hand out and without speaking Beth passed him the jack.

She quietly watched his muscular arms flexing as he quickly jacked the vehicle up and off the ground, then removed the flat tire with ease, stopping every few seconds to toss his hair out of his eyes as he worked in silence.

Beth was unable to tear her eyes away from the sight of him doing in minutes what would most probably have taken her hours. Her father had insisted on showing both Beth and Maggie how to change a flat tire, making them do it whilst he stood and watched. But Beth was glad she didn't have to go through the humiliation of trying to remember exactly how to do it again now.

Her eyes instead remained glued to Deputy Dixon's back, as he changed it for her instead. She couldn't help but notice the outline of a tattoo poking out of the side of his leather vest. It looked like it could be a a devil's horn, and next to that there was what appeared to be the tip of a thick scar. It reminded Beth, despite being a man of the law now, he was also Merle Dixon's brother and she presumed at one point that his past must have been a lot more colourful than it was now.

She moved back slightly as he suddenly stood up, catching her eye straight on again from where she was still stood directly behind him with her arms folded close to her chest. The night was drawing in and she was starting to feel goosebumps on her exposed flesh. He didn't say anything as he walked past her, over to the trunk of her car, lifting the heavy spare tire out.

"You got that flashlight?" He mumbled, as he placed the new tire on to the lug bolts.

Beth nodded, "Sure," she replied, moving closer to him, holding it in his line of vision.

"A little closer," he said patiently, his voice slightly softer.

Beth edged closer, feeling another tingle hitting her at how close she was to him now, as she continued to shine the bright light out for him.

From afar, he could look a little greasy sometimes, but up close the products in his hair smelled of mint with a hint of vanilla. She wanted to press closer to him, but she knew she had to keep a little distance.

She studied his hands as he re-placed and tightened all the lug nuts. He had such careful, attention to detail, and she couldn't help but notice how nice his hands were, his palms were big and his fingers were long with strong looking knuckles.

"Done," he said, back on his feet again.

"Thanks," Beth said again, smiling at him, her eyes sparkling.

"Shouldn't be getting any more problems," he added, wiping his hands on his rag again.

"Aren't you going to lecture me about not letting it happen again, deputy?" Beth said shyly, biting down on her glossy lower lip as she looked straight at him.

His lips twitched in to a faint smirk, and he shrugged. His deep blue eyes locked with her brighter blue ones. She felt an immense rush of attraction, and she wondered if he felt it too.

"Well, I guess, I'll be on my way then," she said, tucking some of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Want me to follow you back, make sure you get there okay?" He asked seriously, concern appearing on his face.

Beth felt herself blushing again at his question, her gaze still fixed on him, "Oh, no, I'll be fine. I don't want to put you to any trouble," she said, her pulse thumping in her chest as she wondered if he knew how far out of town her family farm was.

"Aint no trouble," he mumbled, shrugging at her again.

"No, really, I'll be fine, I have my phone," she said politely, still smiling. The last thing she wanted to do was be a burden to him, or have him see her as even more of a damsel in distress.

"Suit yourself," he said abruptly, stepping back away from her, his body language stiffening slightly.

Still unable to hide her pink cheeks, Beth couldn't help but feel even more tingly at the thought of him following her home.

"Thank you, again," she said, getting back into her car, starting the engine up perfectly this time.

...

_'Thank you,'_ Beth thought to herself, as she drove through the dark and deserted country roads back to the farm.

'_That was all I could say, thank you,_' she thought, annoyed with herself.

He had been right there in front of her, she could at least have offered to buy him a drink or something, that wouldn't have been too forward. _That was just what you were meant to say when someone helped you out, wasn't it?_ She thought some more, analysing every last part of their interaction.

Something had stopped her from saying anything like that to him though. He seemed so quiet and aloof all of the time, she was unsure exactly how he would have taken it. So instead she had simply thanked him, smiled and driven off.

Beth then thought to his offer to follow her home. She could tell he had said it out of nothing but concern for her, and that single thought brought a small smile to her lips. He wasn't the jackass people thought he was, underneath his gruff exterior, he was actually a nice guy. The kind of guy that wanted to make sure a girl got home okay.

She turned up the radio as a song she liked came on, and she drove on, humming to herself.

Glancing into the rear view mirror, a little further back in the distance she could suddenly make out a single bright light creeping up behind her. The smile on her lips increased, as she realised it could only be the light from a motorcycle…..

**A/N - Thanks for reading! I would love to hear a review if you have time. It has also been suggested to have a chapter from Daryl's POV, so I am planning to write that next! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Daryl looked up from his desk, hearing Rick and Shane retuning from their lunch break.

Walking straight in to the building they appeared deep in conversation, Shane doing most of the talking, his face screwed up as he spoke passionately into Rick's ear. Daryl turned away he didn't care much what they were talking about. It was probably nothing that would interest him.

"Afternoon," Rick said to Daryl, as he walked past Daryl's desk and into his office followed closely by Shane still, who gave Daryl a quick nod of the head in acknowledgement as he continued to talk to Rick.

Daryl grunted something in response, before his head was down again, he wasn't one for small talk. He didn't mind talking to Rick if he was on his own that was. If it it wasn't work related it was normally something that revolved around their mutual interest in hunting and fishing.

Shane, on the other hand, Daryl tried to avoid getting into conversations with unless it was absolutely necessary. It wasn't that he outright disliked the other deputy sheriff, he just found him a little arrogant and boastful. He always seemed to think he knew better than everyone else, and if he was honest, Daryl didn't exactly trust him. He knew Shane had had his eye on Rick's job for some time now and Daryl wouldn't put it past Shane to stab Rick in the back, given half the chance.

But Daryl reminded himself he wasn't here to be bothering himself with things like that as he turned back to scanning some reports on his desk he had printed off earlier. He frowned, trying to focus and drown out the sound of Shane talking still.

Rick had left his office door open a jar, and Daryl heard his phone ringing, interrupting his conversation with Shane as Rick picked it up and started speaking quickly. Daryl couldn't make out a lot of what he was saying, but he could tell from Rick's tone it was serious. He took a swig from the bottle of water by his side, pushing his hair to one side and away from his face, wondering what it could be.

After a few more minutes, Daryl heard Rick and Shane talking again, before the door to Rick's office flung fully open.

"Daryl, you got a sec?" Rick asked, poking his head around the door, his eyes serious.

"Sure," Daryl replied, standing up immediately.

…

Rick gestured for Daryl to take a seat beside Shane in his office.

Daryl sat down silently, his eyes on Rick in anticipation of what he was about to say.

Rick remained standing, perching on the edge of his desk.

"We got a situation," Rick announced, his arms folded, his face looking stressed.

Daryl continued to fix Rick with his full attention, but he noticed out of the corner of his eye, Shane was shaking his head and looking down at his boots.

"A girl has gone missing," Rick explained.

Daryl suddenly felt his heart rate spike. "Go on," he said slowly.

"Lizzie Samuels. I've just had her sister on the phone," Rick explained further.

"This is a joke, that girl goes missing every other month, she's crazy everyone knows that," Shane interrupted loudly.

"That's as may be, but when I get a teenage girl on the phone, telling me her sister hasn't been seen for days, I gotta take it seriously," Rick stated, raising his voice, his pale blue eyes flashing at Shane.

Shane fell silent, looking away and shaking his head some more.

"They live up near the woods, you okay to go up there? Speak to the sister get her to give a full statement. The Father is pretty sick by all accounts," Rick said, looking to Daryl, who nodded in agreement.

"Enough to make anyone sick, with a kid like that," Shane muttered under his breath.

"Take a look around up there, see what you can find, knock on a few doors see if anyone saw anything. Hershel Greene owns most of the land up that way, I'm sure he would be happy for you to search the area," Rick continued, ignoring Shane, and addressing Daryl still.

"Sure," Daryl responded, standing up.

"I would send Tara with you, but I need her on something else," Rick added, standing up too, following Daryl out of the office.

"I'll be fine on my own," Daryl said in a low voice. He liked the new trainee deputy Tara, but she talked a lot, and sometimes Daryl thought it was nice to just have some peace and quiet.

….

"You get a chance to look at those photos?' Daryl suddenly asked Rick quietly, pausing at the door as Shane passed him.

Rick's face looked blank.

"I dropped them off with your babysitter the other night," Daryl went on to say.

"Who Beth?" Rick queried.

"Yeah Beth," Daryl mumbled in a low voice. Trying to pretend he hadn't been aware of exactly what the hot young blonde that had answered the door to him that night had been called. He swallowed, remembering the recent occasion he had changed the same girl's tire for her too. How that night there had been something about her, despite the obvious, that had made him want to make sure she was okay.

He looked down at his shoes, before re-focusing on the matter at hand, looking back to Rick. Daryl had been out hunting deep into the woods on more than one occasion recently when he had come across several dead animals, mainly deer, that appeared to have been ripped apart in the most crazed and savage way. In a way no animal native to this area that he was aware of, would be capable of.

Daryl had been hunting all his life and he knew there was something very disturbing and potentially worrying about this. He had reported it to Rick, who had requested Daryl bring him photographic evidence, before he issued warnings or investigated further.

"Yeah, yeah, I looked at them," Rick said, a look of recollection appearing on his face.

Daryl looked at his boss awaiting his further response.

"I don't know, Daryl, looks like it could have just been a coyote or something. No need to start panicking people unnecessarily," Rick said, to Daryl's disappointment.

...

After a hostile few encounters with some rural properties, Daryl took a moment to compose himself, glancing out at the beautiful swirls of red and orange on the horizon. Sunset had always been his favourite time of day and out here on the outskirts of the small town he had grown up in, surrounded by fields and natural land as far as the eye could see it was breath taking.

He pushed his dark glasses up tightly to the bridge of his nose and turned to knock firmly on the front door of the Greene farm.

Hearing footsteps approaching, he braced himself. This was the last property in the area he was calling on. Judging by the frosty reception he had received at the others, he wasn't holding out much hope he would receive a warm welcome here either. Although he had sensed immediately the energy was a little different here, and something told him this call could be a little different too. He hadn't forgotten this was also where Beth Greene lived.

"Can I help you deputy?" Hershel Greene asked, opening the door with a stern but not entirely un-friendly look on his face.

"Sorry to bother you sir, but a young girl's gone missing in the area, wondered whether you could take a few minutes to answer a few questions about whether you may have seen anything of interest around your property?" Daryl asked in his deep southern drawl.

"Who?_"_ Hershel asked immediately, his steely blue eyes looking out from his wrinkled face, showed sudden and deep concern.

"Lizzie Sammuels," Daryl answered.

"Thought as much, poor Ryan Sammuels," the white haired men responded, shaking his head, making reference to the missing girl's father.

Daryl waited for him to then launch in to a rant about how Lizzie Sammuels was crazy anyway, and that her running away was nothing new. Like most of the other people Daryl had spoken to up here had.

Instead though, Hershel Greene let out a long sigh, shaking his head.

"You think you might have seen anything out of the ordinary around here recently?" Daryl questioned.

"I don't spend that much time outside the farm these days, the best person to speak to about that would be my youngest daughter, she's out a lot on her pony," Hershel said, his eyes still serious.

"She's just on her way out to meet some friends, but I'm sure she'd be happy to help you if she can," he added.

Daryl nodded. Pretty sure he knew who the older man's youngest daughter was.

"You'd better come in," Hershel said, holding the door open and stepping back.

"Thanks," Daryl replied, removing his sunglasses and walking across the threshold and in to the Greene family home. Waiting in the hallway.

"Bethy," Hershel shouted out, up the stairs.

"What is it Daddy?" A young female voice said after a brief wait. It was a voice Daryl was coming to recognise. A voice that created a strange unfamiliar sensation in him.

"There is a sheriff's deputy here, wondered if he could ask you a few questions?" Hershel explained.

"Oh okay," Beth replied politely, "I'll be down in a sec."

Daryl couldn't help but think about the way he or his brother would have reacted to a law enforcement office turning up on their doorstep wanting to ask them questions back when they had been her age. It certainly wouldn't have been anything like Beth's initial reaction here.

"Like to wait through here," Hershel said, gesturing for Daryl to go through to the room to his right.

"Can I get you something to drink?" He asked.

"Nah, I'm good, thanks," Daryl replied, looking around at the big homely living room. He couldn't imagine ever living anywhere like this.

Hershel nodded, "She won't be long," he said, walking out the room, leaving Daryl alone.

Daryl couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. He wasn't used to people being civil to him. Half the town despised him for selling out, for turning to the dark side as they saw it and becoming a man of the law. The other half looked down on him for being a Dixon, thinking no son of Will Dixon had the right to be wearing a deputy badge.

There was no such judgement from Hershel Greene though. Although not overly friendly, the ageing vet treated Daryl with the same respect Daryl presumed he would treat Rick, Shane or anyone else with.

Remaining standing, his eyes scanned the room. There were some framed photographs placed on the mantle piece. One was of a young Beth smiling with her older siblings. There were several of the Greene children at various different stages in their lives, mainly Beth and Maggie. Daryl's eyes darted across them. Then his heart sank a little as he saw a picture of an older blonde woman, she had the same big blue smiling eyes as Beth. It was her mother.

Daryl remembered what had happened. It was years ago now, but it had been the worst storm for decades, everyone had heard about poor Hershel Greene and how it had killed his wife and son.

He tensed, hearing the sound of someone approaching he looked over to the door to see Beth walking into the room to join him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she said, flashing him a shy smile.

She had more make-up on than the last time he had seen her. She was wearing a short black dress with heels, and her long shiny blonde hair, normally tied back whenever he saw her, was falling down around her shoulders in loose waves. She looked stunning. So stunning, it left him speechless for a second.

"My Dad said you had some questions?" She prompted, looking a little confused.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, his voice low.

Her bright blue eyes widened in anticipation.

"You know Lizzie Sammuels?" he asked.

"Lizzie? Yeah, I know her. But not well, she was a few years younger than me at high school. Is she okay?" Beth questioned, looking concerned.

"She's been reported missing," Daryl replied.

"Oh, I see," Beth responded. A look of pity but not complete surprise, crossed her pretty features. The same look Daryl had seen that day on pretty much everyone's face, after hearing Lizzie Sammuels had gone missing again.

But despite what people thought, Daryl knew this was different. He knew enough to know the difference between a teenage runaway and something more sinister. He had spoken to Lizzie's younger sister Mica at length earlier. Mica was wise beyond her years, she knew not to trouble people unless she had real valid concerns. Her sister would take off frequently, but she would always leave her a note, usually pack a bag and never ever would she leave without the watch their mother had bought her for her birthday before she had died. Something was wrong.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Daryl asked Beth, his eyes peering at her through his long hair.

"Not for a while," Beth replied, staring back at him.

"She have any friends, a boyfriend that you know of?" He asked, still looking straight at her.

Beth shook her head, causing her hair to slide from side to side.

"Lizzie didn't have many friends at school, she kind of kept herself to herself. People used to say she was weird, that she was into weird stuff…" she trailed off.

"I hope she's okay," she added, putting her hand up to her mouth.

"Yeah, so do I," Daryl said a little gruffly.

The room fell silent.

Beth looked away deep in thought, before she wrinkled her brow, glancing back in Daryl's direction as thought a light had been switched on in her head.

"Wait, I do remember seeing her now. It wasn't long after I got back. I was out riding Ruby, my pony, when I saw her sat down by the stream not far from here. I asked her if she was okay, but she didn't really respond. Then when I came back she was still there but there was a guy with her."

"You get a look at him?" Daryl questioned immediately.

"He was about late twenties, dark hair, wearing jeans and a baseball cap, sorry I can't remember any more," Beth said apologetically.

'S'okay, that's very helpful," he replied.

"You think you could come down to our offices, make a statement when you get the time?" he asked.

"Of course, I can stop by on my lunch break," she answered with a small smile.

"Sorry I couldn't be of any more help," she apologised again.

"You've been very helpful, Miss Greene, I won't take up any more of your time," Daryl said, suddenly feeling a little awkward, remembering how he had felt the other night when he had fixed her car up for her.

"But, if you remember anything else, please give me a call," he added, handing her his card.

He moved to the door, waiting for her to go through first.

"I will…..And, it's Beth," she said, looking at him through her long eyelashes, giving him another shy smile.

…..

"How's that tire holding up? Daryl asked, as they walked to the front door.

"Oh, it's fine thanks," Beth answered, pausing as they heard a door shutting and the sound of her father whistling.

"Please, don't mention anything to my Dad about that," she quickly said in a hushed tone.

Before Daryl had the chance to respond, Hershel Greene appeared again.

"You all done here?" He asked, looking to Daryl.

"Yes thanks, sir. Your daughter was very helpful," Daryl responded, his eyes flicking to where Beth was stood next to her father.

Hershel nodded, smiling briefly for the first time that evening as he patted his daughter on the shoulder, "Always is," he said.

"I best be off now too," Beth said looking to her father.

"If you're heading in to town I can give you a ride if you like?" Daryl said, taking himself by surprise. It wasn't the kind of thing he would normally say to someone.

He could tell he had taken Beth by surprise too, from the look forming in her blinking blue eyes, "I - uh," she stammered, looking to her father.

"Would make sense, Bethy, save you having to drive that tired old vehicle of your own around after dark. I could have Glenn or Maggie stop by and pick you up later," Hershel said, his eyes resting on his daughter's face.

Daryl couldn't help but feel a little grateful to the old man. Deputy badge or not, there weren't many men in their small town that would be willing to trust him with their daughters.

"Well, if you're sure, Deputy Dixon," Beth said, a little blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Daddy doesn't like me driving around late at night," she explained, looking back to her father and away from Daryl.

"Don't trust that run down car of your's, that's all, I've offered to get her a new one," Hershel said looking back to Daryl.

Daryl nodded his head.

"There is nothing wrong with the one I've got," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"We'll see about that," Hershel added with a smile, opening the front door to see them off.

...

"Thanks, for not mentioning anything to my Dad about the car," Beth said a little hesitantly, as they walked up to Daryl's car.

"No problem, he's right though," Daryl said, slipping his dark glasses back on. "Shouldn't be driving around in a car that's not safe, especially at the moment," he mumbled, holding the door open for her.

She didn't get in straight away, instead she chewed down on her lower lip, "You really think something bad has happened to Lizzie?" She asked a little shakily, meeting his gaze full on.

He hesitated, his hand on the car door still, drinking in the sight of her stood in front of him, her long blonde hair shining in the early evening sun, her pretty blue eyes wide and inquisitive.

"When a girl goes missing like that, it rarely means anything good," he eventually said. Not wanting to alarm her too much, but wanting to say enough to make her realise she needed to take extra care too.

This time Beth nodded silently, and she slid into the passenger seat, giving Daryl a waft of her sweet perfume as she passed him.

…..

"So…" Daryl said, a hand resting easily atop the steering wheel while he looked over at Beth in the passenger seat of his patrol car. Conversation didn't come easily to him and he was a little lost for words. He wasn't used to having people in the front of his car that weren't his work colleagues. Beth was staring wide eyed out of her opened window, a gentle breeze from it fluttering the edges of her long hair, she looked perfect. "Where to?" he asked, in a low grumbling voice, eyeing her through his hair.

She glanced back at him, her eyes sparkling and blue, "Bob's bar, but anywhere near there would be fine," she replied.

"Might have guessed," he remarked, smirking a little.

"What?" She asked, her eyes flashing curiously.

"Just wouldn't have expected you to say anywhere else, thats where all the kids seem to hang out these days," he said, his eyes staring ahead now.

"I'm not a kid," she protested, rolling her eyes with a flirty smile, "And besides, I expect you've spent your fair share of time in there too, Deputy Dixon," she added, arching a brow.

"Might have done," he mumbled, chuckling lightly, his eyes settling on the road.

He had known Bob Stookey since they were small, he remembered the days when his father Robbie Stookey had run the bar. He and Merle had gotten in to their fair share of bar brawls in there over the years too, normally Daryl leaping to Merle's defence when he had mouthed off too much. Not any more though, these days when he wasn't working Daryl seemed to prefer his own company to drinking in public, he was rarely seen in Bob's now,

"You meeting your boyfriend?" he asked casually, his eyes sliding back over to the pretty blonde next to him. He told himself he was just enquiring after her safety. Whether there would be someone around to look out for her, seeing as they had a potential psychopath on the loose.

"Oh, no, I don't have a boyfriend," she replied blushing, her lips curling up in to a small smile, as she ran her finger tips through the edges of her hair.

Daryl nodded, adverting his gaze back to the road again feeling a knot in his stomach, and the faintest of smiles formed on his lips too. It was really none of his business, he shouldn't care, but he did.

He'd noticed Beth Greene the minute she had appeared around the town a few weeks back and he'd discovered she was one of Hershel Greene's daughters, back from some fancy university. He'd thought she was gorgeous, but he'd presumed she would be just like all the other college bitches he had come across in his time -spoiled, pretty rich girls, bitchy and entitled, unwilling to give the likes of him the time of day, well screw them!

So, like he did most people, he had avoided Beth. Until the night he had briefly run in to her when she had been babysitting at Rick's.

Something weird had happened then, he hadn't spoken to her for long, but it had been long enough for him to realise she was different. Worth talking to. From that moment on, something about her had gotten under his skin. And despite trying to push her out of his mind, they just seemed to keep meeting under bizarre coincidences.

….

They drove on in silence for a while.

Daryl put his hand up to his chin to lightly stroke his stubble, trying to think of something else to say he noticed she was singing along to a song playing in the background on the radio. He normally hated anyone singing, but her voice was soft and delicate, like warm summer rain and he kinda liked it.

He couldn't help it, he looked over at her again and smirked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, her face flushing with embarrassment. "I love to sing. It's an annoying habit I've got," she mumbled.

"Aint annoying….well maybe a bit," he teased, raising his eyebrows.

She shook her head playfully, laughing.

She had a sense of humour, Daryl thought, as he let out a laugh too, was more than most women he knew did.

The car fell silent again, and Beth let out a small sigh, winding down the window a little more she allowed the fresh early evening air to cool her face as they drove through the quiet pretty green roads, alive with all the signs of mid summer.

"I can put the air con on if you want?" he mumbled.

"Oh, no, I prefer to get some real air," she replied. "I always forget how clean the air is back here, you take it for advantage when you live here all year round," she added.

Daryl nodded in agreement, "You back for long?" he asked.

"For the summer. Then I need to start looking for an internship. Probably need to move back to Atlanta, there aren't many nursing positions around here," Beth answered. She bit her lip, thoughtful for a moment.

"You studying nursing?" he asked, a little surprised.

Daryl wasn't sure why he was surprised to hear she had been studying nursing. He guessed he had just presumed she would have been studying something more along the lines of art or marketing or media studies. But nursing actually suited her, and as far as he was concerned was far more valuable than any of those other things.

"Yeah," she replied, her eyes sliding over to meet his. "I wanted to be a vet like my Dad and sister, but I didn't get the grades. Guess, I just aint as smart as them…." she sighed.

"You got the looks," Daryl remarked.

He could have kicked himself for saying that, as soon as he saw her beautiful face drop and she looked away from him. He hadn't said it to be a dick, he had been trying to be nice, but it had all come out wrong. He had no game with women and he knew it.

"You know what I mean," he quickly added, "I'm not trying to say you're not smart, I mean you must be smart, you went to college and all, I never went to college," he mumbled clumsily.

"It's okay," she said looking back in his direction. "You just must have never seen my sister that's all," she said with a little laugh, her eyes sparking again. Maggie had always been the hot one, the one that stood out.

Daryl shrugged.

He had seen Maggie Greene, more times than he had seen Beth. Maggie was attractive enough, but she wasn't the type to catch his eye. She always seemed on the defence and had a look as though she could bust any mans balls if they didn't look at her right.

He was about to say something else, when his personal cell phone suddenly went off from where it was placed on his dashboard. He glanced down at it, to see it was Carol Peletier. He frowned, he'd have to call her back.

He'd become friends with the lonely housewife, when he had attended a call from her neighbour reporting domestic abuse at her place. He had known as soon as he had shown up there, her scumbag of a husband had been beating her black and blue, but like most women in her situation she'd covered for him. Daryl had wanted to beat the shit out of Ed Peletier, but he knew that wouldn't have solved anything. So, instead he had given Carol his number and said no matter what time it was, to call him if she ever needed anything.

Silencing the call, he sensed Beth's eyes studying him. But she didn't say anything as they approached the town.

"Here," he said, pulling up outside Bob's bar.

"Thanks," Beth said, undoing her seatbelt.

"No problem," he responded.

Watching her, he couldn't help himself, he checked her out. Her short black dress was riding up her thighs as she climbed out, exposing her long and toned, lightly tanned legs. He looked away, feeling like a pervert as he couldn't help but imagine further what she looked like underneath her dress. Causing a heat to spread up his body. He cleared his throat and looked back in her direction, feeling distinctly uncomfortable.

He wasn't like Shane, he didn't use this job to hit on women, and he didn't have the restraints of a wife and kid at home either like Shane did. It just wasn't his thing.

"Thanks again, Deputy Dixon," Beth said sweetly, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Daryl," he mumbled roughly.

Her eyes lit up as he said that, and she responded with a grin, "Thanks _Daryl_, and thanks again for fixing my car and for not saying anything to my Dad…I feel as though I haven't even thanked you properly for that, I should buy you a beer or something," she said, twisting her hands together.

"No need for that," he muttered, "Just be safe," he added.

He flicked his hair away from his eyes, as he watched her flash him one last bright smile, before she wandered off and into the bar, and an uneasy feeling hit him, if he had the time he would have made sure to patrol the area and keep an eye over the goings on around the bar, something wasn't right.

But, he knew he would have to head over to Carol's place right now, and then he would be out combing the woods with a flash-light for any signs of what could have happened to Lizzie Samuels.

He sighed, unable to shake thoughts of Beth Greene out of his head as he drove steadily away from where he had just dropped her off. The smell of her sweet and musky perfume still lingering in his car. When his radio buzzed.

"Dixon," it was Rick, "You copy?"

"Yeah, I copy," Daryl said.

"We got a body," Rick's voice said loud and clear.

...

**A/N - Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone following my story so far. I am trying out something a little different here, so would love to hear a review! (Oh and I didn't mean to make Shane such a jerk here, it just kind of wrote itself!)**


	4. Chapter 4

**hapter 4: Chapter 4**

* * *

**a/n - I apologise for the delay in updating this story. If people are still interested in this AU Bethyl I am happy to keep it going over the summer :)**

* * *

Beth stumbled out of the empty bar, linking arms with her best friend Amy.

"He's cute right?" Amy asked, chewing on her thumbnail, glancing over to where Randall was sat in his car looking back at them.

Beth shrugged, raising her eyebrows. He certainly wasn't her type, but Amy seemed pretty into him.

"Amy, come on," Randall called out impatiently, honking the horn.

It was past midnight and Bob's bar was about to close. After one too many tequila shots, Beth and Amy had called it a night. Beth had been slightly relieved, watching her friend flirting with Randall and his friends all night hadn't exactly been her idea of fun. Especially when a few of them had tried their luck flirting with her too.

She had been polite, but they weren't her type of guys. Too sleazy and loud, arrogant even. Clearly just hoping to get lucky for the night, they hadn't shown any real interest in anything she'd had to say.

"I'm sorry Zach didn't show up," Amy said, hiccuping slightly. Her focus all on Randall, looking over to where his head was poking out the side of his car window, grinning over at her.

"Really, Amy, it's fine," Beth stated firmly, rolling her eyes a little. "There is life after the guy who doesn't call after one date," she quipped, her lips breaking in to a forced smile. Zach was now the last thing on Beth's mind. Weird how she could go from obsessing over one guy, to someone else appearing out of the blue, making her realise how meaningless it had actually been.

Amy smiled too, looking back to Beth, her green eyes turning serious, "Want me to see if Randall can give you a ride home?" she asked. "I feel bad leaving you here on your own to wait for Glenn."

"No, I'm fine," Beth was quick to reply.

"Well if you're sure," Amy responded seriously still. Before her face turned more playful again, and she added with a small twinkle in her eye, "You could always call Deputy Dixon to come and pick you up again, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to oblige."

Beth felt her cheeks flush slightly, Amy had taken great delight in teasing her earlier, having spotted her getting out of Daryl's patrol car.

"You're blushing," Amy teased some more.

Beth shook her head, "He was coming this way anyway. It was one favour," she responded, unable to stop herself from smiling too.

"Well maybe he'll be expecting a favour in return," Amy giggled.

"Amy, aint got all night," Randall yelled.

"Go," Beth said waving her hand at her friend. "Glenn will be along to pick me up any minute, I'll be fine," she promised.

"Okay," Amy leaned in to hug her friend quickly.

"But be safe," Beth said quietly, before Amy dashed off.

Watching Randall's car speed in to the distance, Beth wrapped her arms around her chest. She slid her phone out of her purse. Maggie had text her earlier to say Glenn would stop by on his way home from work to pick her up, but he was late. The street was pretty deserted too. Unlike Atlanta, Beth's small home town turned dead after midnight.

Putting her phone back in her purse, Beth glanced down at the card she had stuffed in there earlier. Daryl's card. The mischievous side of her was tempted to call him now, to thank him again, maybe even see if he was in the area. She had tried to act casual around Amy, but the truth was, she was crushing on the sullen, handsome deputy sheriff, badly. But she knew it was just the alcohol making her think like that, she wouldn't normally contemplate calling a guy she barely knew at this time of night. Instead Beth fastened up the clutch on her purse, she wasn't brave, or possibly stupid enough to do something crazy like that. Instead she would just wait until she ran into him again by chance, giving him a shy smile, hoping to start a conversation to get to know him a little better. Right now she settled for just remembering the short car ride they had shared earlier.

It had been nothing really, just a lift into town, because he happened to be going that way too and it was the right thing to do as a sheriff's deputy. Rick or Shane, would surely have offered to do the same thing too.

A simple car ride or not though, Beth couldn't brush aside the butterflies she had experienced when she had noticed him looking at her the way he had as she had climbed out. She had seen him pretending not to be checking her out when his eyes had taken a peek at her legs and ass. Up until that point she'd had no idea what he had been thinking. The more she had chatted to him the more he had opened up, but she still knew next to nothing about him or what he thought of her, expect that he had sneaked a quick look at her body in those last few seconds before he had dropped her off.

A thought that excited her more than a little.

She looked up the dimly lit street as suddenly the bright lights of a car came into vision, and Beth breathed out a small sigh of relief presuming it was Glenn, the alcohol from earlier still rushing around her as she waited for him to pull up in front of her.

But as the car got closer she could quite clearly see that it wasn't Glenn. It was a dark coloured car with blacked out windows. It slowed down a little as it passed her, and Beth could make out a man with dark brown hair peering out at her through the tinted glass. She froze, something about him made her feel a little uneasy from where she was stood all alone outside the deserted bar.

To her relief, he then sped off, leaving her stood alone on the dark street once again.

She shivered a little, wondering whether perhaps she should have taken up Amy's offer of a ride with Randall, or even whether she should just call Daryl, he did say to contact him if she ever needed anything.

But before she had the chance to debate with herself internally any further, she could see a car suddenly appearing in the distance again driving slowly towards her. Beth felt her heart rate quickly speed up, hoping it wasn't the same creep from before back to take another look.

"Beth," Glenn said winding down the window, as the car pulled up beside her.

Beth smiled, looking over to see Glenn's bright red Porsche, she had never been so pleased to see her sister's boyfriend.

"I'm sorry I'm late, got held up," he explained as she climbed into the car next to him and he flashed her a friendly grin.

"Oh it's fine, thanks for stopping by," Beth replied, with a grateful smile in return.

Beth liked Glenn, he was smart, funny and the nicest of all the guys her sister had dated by a mile. He could be a little clueless at times, but he was good for Maggie and one of the family now.

Sinking back in to the comfortable leather seat of the immaculate air conditioned car, Beth suddenly felt another rush from all the alcohol she had consumed that night rush around her system. She hiccuped as she fastened her seatbelt, putting her hand up to her mouth as her blonde hair fell over her eye.

"Good night?" Glenn asked, grinning some more as they drove off.

Beth nodded, embarrassed, as she tried to stall her hiccups, before she replied, "I guess," forcing a little smile this time.

"Let me guess, you were out with Amy?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yep," Beth replied, hiccuping again, feeling like a naughty college kid again. Sometimes it was hard to remember she was an adult now, going out drinking in bars with her crazy friend Amy was completely legal and above board these days, even if did amuse the likes of Glenn still.

"You should try drinking leaning over a cup," he said, amused still, "For the hiccups."

Beth shot him an unamused look.

As if reading her body language Glenn turned up the stereo in the car, filling the air with music as they drove on in silence.

Beth glanced out the window, allowing her blonde hair to fall over her face some more as she tried to hold her breath to get rid of her hiccups and sober up a little. her big dreamy eyes following the dark shadowy outlines of the pretty rural Georgian countryside. No matter how much she might moan about being bored here, this was home. It always would be.

In no time at all, they seemed to be on the long deserted road leading to the Greene family farm. Rather than find it in total darkness as usual though, it was brightly lit by flashing lights and a couple of vehicles parked at the end.

Getting nearer they could see the lights were coming from police cars, there were a few people stood around too, and a barrier barricading off the end of the road.

"What the hell?" Glenn muttered, as he brought the car to a halt.

Beth put her hand to her mouth in shock, suddenly remembering her conversation with Daryl from earlier. Lizzie Sammuels was missing, that together with these cars and official looking people didn't look good and her heart sank.

A figure approached them, tapping on Glenn's window. He pressed the button to open it.

"You can't get through there, there's been an incident," it was Tara, the new trainee deputy from the sheriff's department.

"We have to get through there, we live down there," Glenn exclaimed. "What's going on?" he asked sounding a little panicked.

"We can't say anything yet, there has been a serous incident and we're handling it," she responded a little robotically.

"Well we need to get down there," Glenn repeated a little angrier this time.

She nodded, "Wait there," she said, walking off.

Glenn put his hand up to run it through his jet black hair in frustration and worry. Beth quickly opened her mouth to tell him about Lizzie, but before she got the chance another figure in uniform appeared at his window.

Beth felt a flutter of butterflies as she recognised the familiar scraggly dark hair and deep blue eyes. It was Daryl. His eyes instantly floated over in her direction, meeting with hers in an unspoken communication.

"There a problem here?" he questioned in a low voice, his dark hair falling over his eyes as he leaned into the car, averting his gaze from Beth, to Glenn.

"We gotta get through, we live down there," Glenn exclaimed again to him, even more agitated now, lifting his hands off the steering wheel, gesturing in the direction of the farm.

Before he responded, Daryl's eyes flickered in Beth's direction once again. He was glad to see the pretty blonde back safely it was written all over his face. Despite everything that had been going on since he had received the call from Rick, she had been at the back of his mind all evening. He hadn't liked the thought she was out drinking in a bar, when there was a suspected murdering psychopath on the loose. He didn't even know her all that well, but something made him keep thinking about her and her well being.

He looked back to Glenn, with a quick nod of his head, he said, "You can go through."

He was about to turn away from them, when Beth spoke up stopping him.

"What's happened?'" she asked, looking straight at him, and her cheeks flushed a rosy shade of pink, partly from the tequila shots and partly from the effect his presence had on her.

He hesitated for a moment before he responded, "We found something."

"A body?" Beth exclaimed, her mouth gaping open in shock, his eyes confirming her worst suspicious without words. Things like this didn't happen around here!

"Jesus, who?" Glenn asked, shocked too.

"We don't know yet," Daryl replied truthfully, saying more than he knew he should. "Just try not to worry, go home get some rest and someone will be round to speak to you in the morning," he continued in an official voice.

….

"Thank goodness you're back," Maggie exclaimed, rushing down the steps to greet Beth and Glenn as they returned.

"Awful aint it? Ottis found her when he was out earlier, the body was right on the edge of our land. The police have been out there all night. Sheriff Grimes called in earlier to speak to Daddy," Maggie exclaimed, as they made their way inside. "Daddy told me about poor Lizzie too, that girl needed help, why anyone couldn't see that.." she carried on talking at them quickly and excitedly.

Beth nodded at her sister in acknowledgement, hiccuping again. "_Damn it, they came back,"_ she muttered to herself.

Glenn's phone suddenly rang, silencing Maggie for a moment. He put it to his ear, mouthing to her, "I gotta take this," as he wandered away from the Greene girls and up the stairs.

Beth let out another loud hiccup, cursing under her breath.

"You want me to make you some mint tea?"' Maggie asked, a concerned look crossing her face.

"Nah, I'm good," Beth replied, smoothing her hair behind her ears, averting her sister's fretting gaze. "I'm just going to stay up and watch some TV for a while before I go to bed."

"Well, just make sure you drink lots of water," Maggie lectured bossily, touching Beth's arm, before she turned to leave the room.

Beth rolled her eyes, watching as her sister left the kitchen.

Maggie's bossy ways irritated Beth, but she had to admit she also found them a little endearing too. The two sister's had grown close since their mother and brother had tragically passed away years before. Maggie had taken to mothering her younger sister, and despite being a huge pain in the ass some of the time, Beth didn't know what she would do without her.

Taking a clean glass out of the cupboard, Beth ran the tap, ready to fill it up with water. When she thought back to Maggie's suggestion of some tea, and she suddenly had an idea.

….

Glancing in the mirror, she wiped at her smudged eyeliner with her finger, pressing her lips together and running her fingertips through the edges of her now slightly tangled long blonde hair, she knew she wasn't looking her best. She would never normally be so bold, but something about this particular night, together with the warm fuzzy glow of the alcohol in her system still, was spurring her on.

…..

Daryl was stood with his arms folded against his chest, deep in thought. It was late, well past midnight. Daryl didn't mind working late though, he found it was late at night when his mind tended to come alive the most. There was less distraction from the noise of other people. Not that he was exactly alone now. Daryl looked over to where his colleague Tara was chatting with one of the forensic women, Denise.

A girl had been murdered, found with horrific wounds all over her body that looked like some kind of savage bite marks, her flesh torn apart. At first glance it looked almost as though she had been attacked by some sort of wild animal, but the marks on her were unusual and not in line with an animal attack. Daryl had seen some pretty fucked up shit in his time, but this had to be up there with the worst, and one thing was for sure the person that had done this needed to be found and stopped, before they could do it to anyone else.

His eyes found themselves drifting over in the direction of the Greene farm, to suddenly see seemingly out of no-where a blonde girl wandering over in his direction.

Her wide eyes met his as she approached him, and he felt a small jolt of something he didn't quite understand hit him.

"Hey," she said a little hesitantly, with a shy smile.

"Thought you might be thirsty being out here all this time, so I brought you some mint tea," she explained, biting down on her lower lip, her blue eyes flashing at him through the darkness, as she held up a flask in her hands.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time, now Beth wasn't so sure as she glanced at the unreadable expression on Daryl's rough and handsome face, as he studied her for a silent moment.

"Thanks,' he eventually responded, taking the steaming cup from her, after she had poured it out. He'd never actually tasted mint tea before and he was pretty sure he wouldn't like it, but he took it anyway.

"Shouldn't be out here on your own," he mumbled gruffly, unable to prevent his eyes from looking over her profile. She still had the same black dress on from earlier, but she had a light grey hoodie on over the top of it now, and she had replaced her heels with some brown swede boots. She still looked hot, perhaps even more hot, he thought, his eyes resting on the bright blueness of her eyes staring back at him.

"I'm not on my own, I'm with you," Beth replied, giggling slightly, letting out another hiccup.

"Good night was it?" he asked, cocking an amused eyebrow in response to her retort.

Beth blushed and shrugged. "I guess," she replied. The truth being the only thing on her mind most of the night had been him. A sullen and somewhat unfriendly deputy who had given her one ride in his car to be polite.

Except in that short journey she had seen a different side to him. He wasn't the jack-ass Amy had always made him out to be. He was deep and thoughtful, caring even, and he had a sense of humour, a little different to most people, but Beth liked that, she liked him! Even stood next to him now in front of a murder scene, she was feeling the most intense sexual chemistry she had ever come across in her life.

She gulped, aware his gaze was flitting back and forth from her eyes to her lips.

"My friend was more interested in flirting with some guy, then taking to me. I aint really interested in flirting with random guys in bars, most of em are idiots, just after one thing," she blurted out, unsure where her openness was coming from.

The corners of his lips twitched up just a bit, his eyes widening, she was drunk still, and much as he hated drunken women, on her he kind of liked it. It wasn't often girls as sweet and pretty as her talked to him, and even drunk she was still sweet.

"That so," he responded, trying to keep a straight face and a respectable distance from her.

"Yeah," she replied softly, looking a little embarrassed. "I don't often drink this much either," she went on to explain. "It's just, it was doubles night and Amy is so persuasive, and now my studies are finished…" She paused, realising she was waffling on like an idiot. She put her hand up to her mouth, as she let out another small hiccup.

She shook her head, her face reddening even more. She didn't want him to get the wrong impression about her.

"Girl, you don't have to explain yourself to me," he said in a low voice, glancing sideways to see out of the corner of his eye, Tara was looking over curiously.

He repositioned himself away from the blonde slightly.

"You're so serious," Beth suddenly exclaimed with a nervous chuckle. Crossing her arms across her midriff as she allowed her blue eyes to rest on his straight face.

"Just got a job to do," he responded, rubbing his face, averting her inquisitive gaze.

"So, what do you do when you're _not_ working?" She asked playfully with a bright smile lighting up her eyes. She might be making a huge fool out of herself, but right now she didn't care.

"Y'know," he mumbled, shrugging his head awkwardly, flicking his hair.

"Don't _'y'know',_ me," Beth replied, imitating his shrug, still smiling. "What do you do when you're not working Deputy Dixon?" she asked again.

Suddenly she wondered whether she would regret asking him that. She had seen the look on his face when his phone had rung in his car earlier, it had been a personal call, possibly from a woman. She had thought she had seen the name Carol or Caroline come up, but she hadn't been completely certain. Whoever she was, she must mean something to him. Which made Beth feel awkward, jealous even, at the thought of him having someone special in his life. Even though she barely knew him and had no hold over him.

Daryl felt his body language stiffening as he pondered her question, the truth being he didn't do much in his spare time these days, not since he had turned to the dark side as his brother Merle had put it, and joined forces with Sheriff Grimes. Alienating himself from his old community.

"Spend a lot of time outdoors," he mumbled, giving in, "Tracking and hunting and shit.."

"I'd like to learn to track and take care of myself in the outdoors...maybe you could teach me," Beth laughed a little nervously. She could tell he found conversation difficult, not like Zach and other guys she had known, who would talk about themselves endlessly non-stop for hours.

He jerked his head in a non committal shrug.

They both turned silent for a moment. Taking in deep breathes of the crisp fresh night air.

Daryl put the steaming tea to his lips to silently sip as he stared into space. To his surprise it tasted good, really good, sweet and refreshing.

Beth chewed her lip, her eyes shot to his face from where he was stood beside her. She swallowed, before asking nervously, "Was it Lizzie?"

Daryl pursed his lips, "We don't know yet," he answered slowly and truthfully, for what that meant. The body fitted Lizzie Sammuels description, but no formal identification had been made.

Beth suddenly felt like a truly awful person, here she was taking a small pleasure in being out here with him and flirting every so slightly, fuzzy headed in the middle of the night - when the reason he was here, was because some poor girl, probably Lizzie, had lost her life in a gruesome way. He must be thinking what a terrible person she was, Beth thought.

Daryl shifted his head to get a good look at her face, instantly spotting the sweet expression on it from earlier was gone, replacing it now was a more tensive and worried one crossing her pretty features.

"Should we be worried?" she asked seriously.

Her intense bright blue stare, was met with his darker blue one.

"We'll catch the sonofabitch that did this," he stated, meaning it.

"I know," she responded with a little nod.

"But you need to make sure you take care, you tell your friend that too," he added, his tone deadly serious. He didn't want to alarm her further, but they were dealing with one sick fucker, no-one could afford to take any chances.

Beth pressed her lips together, studying the concern in his eyes. Before she thought back to Amy, she knew she should call her, check she was okay.

"It's late I'll walk you back to the house," Daryl said, glancing back over to Tara to see she was chatting to Denise again now, her attention away from him and his interactions with the young blonde Greene girl.

He took a small step further towards Beth, allowing her scent to fill his nostrils as his eyes travelled over her again. She peered at him back through her long fluttering eyelashes, digging her nails into her palm.

"You mind if I just stay out here with you for a few minutes longer? I'm not quite sure I'm tired yet," she asked shyly.

She was starting to sober up now, and realism was hitting her. The body of a girl, someone she had known, had been found on her land. She didn't know Daryl all that well, but she knew she liked being around him a lot he made her feel safe, and right now his presence was particularly comforting.

He blinked a few times, looking back at her, "Sure," he shrugged. He wasn't quite sure why, but he was glad she had said that. He was glad she was here.

* * *

**a/n - Thanks for reading, would love to hear your thoughts.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N - Thanks for the great response to last chapter! :) I love hearing your thoughts. I have a rough plot worked out, but as always I am always open to hearing any ideas or suggestions you might have to make it better.**

**I have also decided to add both Daryl and Beth's POV in to the chapters. Hope that works for everyone.**

* * *

Beth nervously twisted her hands together as she wandered into the front entrance to the sheriffs office, her heels clicking noisily on the hard floor as she juggled her purse and the small tray of donuts she'd just purchased in her slight hands.

Stopping at the reception desk, she swept her hair away from her face, glancing at the top of the dark haired woman sat behind it.

"Can I help you?" she looked up and asked, her face was serious, but her eyes not un-friendly.

Beth recognised her immediately as Tara Chambler, the trainee deputy who had been on duty the night before when Beth and Glenn had been trying to get home. Tara was fairly new to the town, and Beth hadn't seen her before this summer.

Staring back at her with big blinking blue eyes, Beth asked hesitantly, "Is Dar…..I mean Deputy Dixon available?" She corrected, biting down on her lower lip.

"I'll just try his line," Tara replied with a faint smile.

An awkward silence followed, as Tara picked up the phone holding it to her ear for a few seconds, before placing it back down.

"There's no reply from up there, so I'll just go up and see if he's free," Tara said, "If you could just sign in, and then wait over there," she gestured with her hand, to the small seating area to the right of the desk.

"Thanks," Beth replied, smiling back as she wandered over to take a seat, a little embarrassed by the noise her heels were making on the floor in the quiet room. She tugged at the hem of her short denim blue coloured dress, wishing she had worn her flats to work that day instead of the cute little nude heels she had decided on for some reason that morning.

She crossed her slim toned legs together and brushed at her hair again with her fingers. Glancing at the big clock on the wall she saw it was exactly midday, the room was so quiet she could hear it ticking and a sudden rush of nerves hit her at the thought of seeing Daryl again as she thought back to the night before. Had she made a fool out of herself?

She had stayed up chatting to him for a while after she had returned from her drunken night out, she wasn't sure exactly how long, but she knew she had been pretty merry after all the tequila with Amy. Which had given her the confidence to go and talk to him the way she had. To ask him questions about himself, questions that had probably made him feel awkward. Beth cringed slightly when she remembered how she had been telling him all about the guys in the bar trying to hit on her too, before she had started quizzing him on what he enjoyed doing outside work. He must have found her so annoying, and it must have bene so incredibly obvious she had a crush on him.

He was probably used to women crushing on him though, seeing as how damn sexy he was in his uniform, Beth thought -manly, brooding and sexy, making her go a little crazy. Despite her quizzing, he hadn't given much away about himself though, which had just made her even more intrigued by him.

At least she hadn't gone into too much detail about her disastrous love life, it could have been worse Beth thought, biting down on her thumbnail. She had a tendency to tell people her whole life story after a few too many drinks.

Whatever Daryl thought of her though, she was here on official business now, Beth reminded herself. He had asked her to stop by and give a statement. Now that they had actually found a body, probably Lizzie, it was more important than ever that she tried to remember everything she possibly could to try and help catch whoever had been responsible for the poor girl's death. It was pretty alarming to Beth, that there was a potential killer at loose in their community. Which reminded her, she still hadn't been able to get hold of Amy to fill her in. She had tried her the night before and first thing that morning, but there had been no reply.

She pulled her phone clumsily out of her purse to check for messages, causing her lipgloss, compact mirror and sunglasses to all come falling out, tumbling across the floor. Scooping down to pick them up, she stuffed them back in to her purse with shaking fingers, hoping no-one had seen. Before she glanced down at her phone to see there was now a message from Amy. _'Call me!'_

_..._

Daryl was sat at his desk, eyes down, quietly staring at his screen. But nothing was really going in. He'd been up most of the night. After he'd left the crime scene he'd gone back to his apartment to try and get some rest before coming back in to the office, but he'd hadn't been able to stop thinking about the murder.

The marks on the girl had been so unusual, like something or someone had gone completely wild on her. It worried him. He had feared something like this was going to happen. He might be terrible at showing it, but Daryl wasn't a total asshole like his brother, and he wouldn't like to think of anyone else in their small town meeting that same kind of fate.

"Daryl," a female voice suddenly said.

He looked up through the long hair falling into his eyes, to see it was Tara.

"There's a blonde in reception to see you," she announced loudly, tilting an eyebrow.

"Err..right," he mumbled, jerking his head.

Looking up from his screen, he noticed Shane was looking over at him, Tara wasn't exactly discreet and Shane's eyes widened with a faint smirk. This was a first, it was normally random women turning up to see Shane, not sullen and quiet Daryl.

…

Walking in to the main reception area, Daryl noticed Beth immediately. She looked up as she saw him, her blue eyes shimmering, taking him back instantly to the night before when they had talked for a while and she had looked at him with those blue eyes as though he was some kind of rockstar. No-one had ever looked at him quite like that before. He'd put it down to the booze, she'd been out partying and was clearly a 'happy drunk', different to most girls he'd known, who just turned loud and obnoxious after one too many tequilas.

But looking at her now, she had that same sparkle in her big blues, and it made him twitch slightly as he approached her.

"Hey," he said, his tone a little awkward. Normally he wouldn't be so informal, but he felt as though they were on first name terms now, seeing as she had stayed up and hung around talking to him for a good part of the previous night back at the edge of the crime scene he was guarding.

"Hey," she replied, in that goddamm sweet as honey voice of hers, Daryl thought, watching her as she stood up to greet him.

Unable to stop his eyes from sliding over her profile, he saw she was dressed in a short blue dress and heels, her light blonde glossy hair was tied neatly back with the front falling down across her flawless face. She looked gorgeous. Too gorgeous for the likes of him to be hit with all sorts of uncontrollable thoughts he knew he shouldn't be having.

"How's it going?" he asked in a low voice, as their eyes met properly.

"Good thanks, I just came by to give my statement, if you're not too busy," she explained, her lips curling up shyly into a little smile. Wondering if from his blank expression he'd forgotten he had asked her to do that.

"Right, sure," he responded with a nod. "Can do it now, I've got some time," he mumbled.

Beth continued to smile. He looked tired, the bags under his eyes were more visible and his hair was more tousled than usual, falling down across his eyes, but he still looked sexy in his uniform, the fitted shirt accentuating his muscular chest.

"This way," he said, gesturing with his head for her to follow him.

"I umm…brought you some donuts, I thought you might be hungry having been up all night," Beth said walking along beside him, suddenly regretting it as the words came out of her mouth and she saw his deadly serious face. She had asked Andrea hypothetically that morning, if someone had done you a favour, two in fact - what would be a polite way of thanking them without making a big deal out of it? Andrea had smiled knowingly and suggested that normally small gestures were appreciated the most, such as a coffee, or slice of cake or pie.

"Thanks," Daryl mumbled, turning to take the small white box from her.

"Maybe it's a myth cops sit round eating donuts all day," Beth added with a nervous laugh.

A small smirk appeared on his face as they walked through the building, "Aint a myth," he muttered in a low rough voice, glancing sideways for a second to see her breaking in to a more relaxed smile, causing the dimples on her pink cheeks to appear.

Walking past his desk, he quickly put the box of donuts down, before stopping at Rick's empty office, "We can go in here," he said pushing at the door, holding it open for her. Glancing back into the room to see Shane looking up from his desk curiously again at the sight of Daryl escorting Beth through the building.

Daryl looked away, ignoring Shane as he held the door open.

Beth brushed past Daryl's out stretched arm as she walked by him, getting a waft of his scent, he smelled good, deep and musky, like some kind of masculine shower gel or aftershave.

"Can I get you some coffee or something?" he asked, as he followed her in, closing the door.

"Nah, I'm good thanks," Beth replied politely.

"Have a seat," he went on to say, pulling a chair out from behind Rick's desk, flicking his hair back and away from his eyes.

"Thanks," Beth said, sitting down tugging at the edges of her short dress.

"Okay, so I just need you to tell me everything you can remember about seeing Lizzie that day. Be as accurate as you can, okay?" He said, sitting opposite her, grabbing a pen, rubbing the side of his nose, his voice taking on a new authoritative tone, whilst remaining reassuring as he looked over at her.

Beth gulped and nodded, feeling a little self conscious under his gaze.

"Take your time," he said kindly, trying to put her at ease. A slight tingling sensation spread across his insides as he studied her pretty face. Daryl had taken numerous witness statements before, but never one from someone that had quite had the effect she was having on him now. He looked away from her, brushing his hair to one side, flustered and a little annoyed with himself for allowing the young blonde to make him feel this way.

"Can go back at the end and change anything you're not happy with," he added patiently.

Beth blinked and looked back at him. He was good at this. She was ashamed to admit now, she had wondered along with everyone else for a while, why Rick had given him the sheriffs deputy job. He hadn't seemed much like a people person. But here now she could see under the right circumstances, when he felt valued or of use, he was good at interacting and could be a great people person.

She watched as he filled out a few details on the form, her eyes falling on his toned biceps.

She looked away and down at her hands, trying to clear her mind completely of any thoughts of Daryl's muscular arms, and take herself back to the day she had seen Lizzie out in the woods.

Drawing in a deep breath, she started.

"I remember it was a particularly hot evening and I had taken my horse Ruby out for a ride in the woods, same as I try and do most evenings after work. It was one of the things I missed the most about home when I was away in the city, y'know being in the peaceful outdoors, on my own with nature, able to think clearly…"

She paused for a breath, glancing at the top of Daryl's dark scruffy hair, from where he was head down scribbling.

"You remember what time it was?" he questioned, as he stopped writing, ignoring her last sentence.

"Bout six, maybe just after," Beth answered seriously too.

He nodded, writing it down.

"I remember seeing her stood by the river on my way out. I wasn't sure who it was at first, I thought it was a little strange that someone was out there alone. But as I got closer and saw it was Lizzie, I presumed she had just wanted some quiet time away from everything. It's not that unusual, I guess, to want to take a walk out in to the woods on your own every now and then…" She hesitated again, looking over at him for his reaction.

He shrugged in response, growing up he'd spent most of his free time out doors on his own, but he wasn't so sure he'd recommend it for a young seemingly unstable girl like Lizzie Sammuels though. Even before it looked like there was a killer in their midst, he knew from his upbringing that there were some pretty unpleasant characters lurking around.

After a few more seconds, Beth took a deep breath and continued.

"I stopped to ask her if she was okay, she ignored me at first, it looked like she was playing with something on her arm, possibly a rodent of some sort. Then I was about to leave her to it, when she turned and looked at me, she had this really strange look in her eye, and she said, '_I have bad dreams, really bad ones, but I always forget them when I wake up,'…"_

Beth paused again to compose herself, her eyes filling with emotion, taking her by surprise. Thinking back to that encounter now it was clear something had been wrong with Lizzie. Beth should have done more, she thought. She should have told someone. Now it was too late.

"She say anything else?" Daryl asked.

Beth shook her head, her voice cracking slightly, she replied, "No, she turned away then and she looked lost in her own thoughts again….When I came back probably about half an hour later, she was still in the same spot, but this time there was a guy with her."

"Can you describe him?"

Beth looked away concentrating, "He was pretty ordinary looking, he had darkish hair and eyes, light stubble maybe, a baseball cap, white t-shirt and jeans, around 6ft, maybe around 30," she described carefully.

Daryl was silent, writing everything down, before he stopped, putting his hand up to his mouth, rubbing his chin, "Anything else?"

"I didn't stop, it looked like they were having a private conversation he was doing the talking, she was just looking at him intently listening to what he was saying with this strange look in her eye. That's all I can remember, I didn't catch what they were saying, I'm sorry," Beth added.

"It's okay," Daryl responded, turning down to scan his writing.

"If you could just read through to check this is right, then sign it. Or if you want I can read it to you?" Daryl explained, showing her the statement.

Beth just smiled and shook her head, "S'okay," she replied, glancing over it quickly, his handwriting wasn't the easiest to read but she got the general gist of it.

She nodded, looking back to him, as he quickly handed her a pen, brushing the smooth skin on her hand with his rough fingers and causing a jolt of electricity to rocket through her as she took it from him and signed her name at the bottom.

Glancing over at him with her long fluttering eyelashes. She smiled a bit.

Daryl returned her smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners, it was a kind and genuine smile. One that made Beth think back to their conversation the night before.

Before either could say anything further, they were interrupted by a loud knock at the door and they both looked over to see it fling open abruptly, "Rick needs you," Tara said to Daryl, poking her head into the room.

Daryl was on his feet quickly, "Gotta go," he said almost apologetically to Beth, "Tara will see you out."

…...

"You lived round here long?" Tara asked, making small talk as they made their way back to the reception.

"All my life," Beth replied.

"I just moved here last year, my sister married Phillip Blake, he owns Woodbury Enterprises," Tara explained cheerfully.

Beth nodded, she knew who Phillip Blake was. He owned the largest cooperation in their small town and employed half of it, including Beth's friend Noah, and Zach the date that never called her back. He had a reputation for being pretty ruthless too, and Noah had said everyone called him the 'Governer!".

"I'm just staying with them until I can afford to get my own place," Tara continued talking quickly at Beth. "There isn't much to do around here, but I quite like it. Everyone seems friendly enough."

"It's not too bad," Beth agreed, with a friendly smile.

"Well, we'll be in touch if we need anything else,' Tara finished as they arrived back at the reception.

...

Back at her desk, Beth was trying to concentrate on her work, but her mind kept drifting back to Daryl. Just thinking about the enigmatic 'rough around the edges' sheriff's deputy, made her insides flutter uncontrollably. She couldn't help but still wonder what he thought of her too, he was so difficult to read, he always seemed so guarded. But Beth pondered what it had meant when he had looked at her and smiled the way he had, his rough touch lingering just a little longer than it should have done on her arm. She felt a little dizzy as she thought about his touch - What it would be like to feel it some more? What he would be like as a lover?

An email flashed up on her screen, snapping her out of her fantasy, it was from Amy - '_Where are you? Call me?'_

Seeing as it was a pretty quiet afternoon, Beth grabbed her phone from where it was placed on her desk to call her friend.

"Where have you been?" Amy asked frantically, picking up immediately.

"Working, and I could ask you the same thing," Beth was quick to reply.

"Well, I was calling to give you the gossip on last night," Amy said excitedly now, blurting out, "I did it with Randall."

"Oh," Beth responded.

"Listen, I can't really talk now, I have to get to work tonight, but tomorrow lets go for cocktails and I'll tell you everything," Amy continued.

"I err.." Beth said hesitantly.

"Oh and Beth, Randall's friend Dave _really _likes you, we could double date," Amy gushed.

"I don't really think he's my type," Beth dismissed.

"Well, whatever, we'll find you a man soon too," Amy said hurriedly.

Beth rolled her eyes from the other end of the phone, she knew Amy meant well, but Beth was sick of her trying to fix her up all the time with guys she really had zero interest in. Beth wasn't one to just date someone for the sake of it. She had only ever had one serious boyfriend and had never been in love. She had waited all this time to find someone special, so that had to mean something.

"Y'know they found a body on our land? There were people up there searching the area last night when I got back," Beth quickly changed the subject.

"Oh my god, yeah, aint if awful, the whole town is talking bout it, makes me sick to the stomach to think there's a killer on the loose," Amy replied. "Whoever the sick freak is, I'm sure Rick will get him though," she added, "Listen, I really gotta go, we'll talk tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Beth replied.

Throwing her battered old iphone back on to her desk, Beth turned back to her emails. When she heard the entrance door to Andrea's small doctors office opening. She looked up expecting Andrea's next patient, to see a tall dark haired man that she didn't recognise instead. He was wearing an expensive looking suit and he flashed her a charming smile as he walked towards her.

"Can I help you?" Beth asked, smiling politely back.

"Well, hopefully, I can help you," the man replied in a smooth confident voice. He looked around late 20's, was clean shaven, very handsome and walked with an air of confidence that said he was very sure of himself.

"Gareth Evans, TMS," he said, still smiling, handing Beth an expensive looking business card, and she caught his eyes for a brief moment, they were a deep mesmerising shade of golden amber. She took the card from him and she instantly realised he was a pharmaceuticals rep, her smile fading quickly. Andrea had a policy about not accepting drop ins from reps.

"I know what you're thinking, pharmaceuticals, ugly business, pushy salesman," he said with a genuine smile now. "But I'm not here to try and con you, at the end of the day our industry is very necessary and saves lives I think you'll agree. So, I was wondering if your boss would be available to hear about some exciting new developments?"

"My boss is busy, she has a policy about not seeing anyone unless by prior appointment, I'm sorry," Beth said apologetically.

"Well, perhaps you could tell her I stopped by then, maybe we could put a date in her diary for when she's less busy," he responded smoothly.

"I'd have to check with her first, if you'd like to call back," Beth responded, trying to get rid of him.

"I'm sure you could make an exception, put something in now," he negotiated, still smiling, his tone persuasive but not pushy, "She can always call and re-arrange, it's just I have something I think will be of great interest to her and I'd hate for her to miss out."

Beth bit down on her lip, flustered, she could tell this guy was used to getting what he wanted. But his good looks, exceptional manners and expensive clothes, wouldn't work on her.

"I really am sorry," she said firmly.

"That's okay, I understand. Your boss is lucky to have you. A receptionist as attractive and smart as you, is very rare indeed," he said sincerely.

Beth blushed, feeling uncomfortable, she wasn't used to getting compliments like that. Even if she knew he was only trying to win her over to get a meeting with Andrea.

"Like I said, I'll speak to her, so feel free to call back," Beth repeated politely, willing him to leave. Something about the way he was looking at her was making her feel a little uneasy.

"I'll be sure to, thanks for your time…..I didn't catch your name," he questioned.

"Beth."

"_Beth_, see you soon, I hope," he said, before turning to leave.

….

"Who was that?" Andrea suddenly said, appearing from her office with some paperwork for Beth.

"Oh, just a pharmaceutical rep, I told him about your policy, no call in's," Beth replied.

"Well, maybe I could have made an exception for a guy as dreamy as that," Andrea joked, arching a brow.

...

Daryl looked down at the body laid out on the autopsy slab. Her face was unmarked, but her light brown eyes were blood shot with deep red rims around them. Her skin was a funny shade of grey. He swallowed and blinked a few times, feeling his heart race. This wasn't the first time he had seen a dead body, but he had never seen the dead body of such a young woman before. A probable murder victim. By a murderer he knew he needed to play a part in catching.

'We got the results back from the DNA tests, it's Lizzie Sammuels," Rick announced sombrely, from where he was stood beside Daryl.

Daryl gave his Sheriff a quick nod of the head, as he continued to stare at the victim. He realised this was what he had been training for, why he had taken up Rick's offer of becoming a deputy sheriff. It wasn't just keeping people safe and restoring order. It was the thrill of the chase, just like when he went out hunting and tracking, he was always looking for that next catch.

A shutter clicked and a flash briefly went off as a photographer from the forensics team that had been called in, took a photograph of Lizzie Sammuels lifeless body lying on the cold slab. Her red eyes were still open and staring blankly at the stark white ceiling above. As well as her other injuries, there was a stab wound on her right shoulder from which dark red blood had dried against her pale skin. There was no doubt in anyones mind, this was a murder enquiry.

"I want you on this," Rick said firmly, his light blue eyes fixed on the body too. Murders like this didn't happen in his small town, this was a great shock.

"Okay," Daryl replied, giving him another firm nod.

"These marks on the body, we need to find out what caused them. You need to search the area, speak to as many people as possible. Someone must know something, if she had a boyfriend or was involved with the wrong people," Rick continued.

"Beth saw her with a man, not too long ago," Daryl said, his eyes looking away from the body and over to Rick. "I was just taking her statement before I came over here. She saw them together out in the woods talking."

"Beth Greene?" Rick confirmed.

Daryl nodded.

"Okay, well you need to take her straight back to where she saw them, get her to reenact every last thing, before we start searching the area. Make sure you don't leave out even the smallest of details, because right now, that's the only lead we've got," Rick lectured, facing Daryl now.

"I'm on it," Daryl replied.

"I meant it when I said I wanted you on this, Daryl. I want you as my right-hand man, you know this area better than anyone. I'm counting on you, Daryl," Rick continued with passion, looking Daryl straight in the eye.

Daryl's eyes widened, most of his life he had felt worthless, like a drifter of no value at all. Right now Rick valued him, and he knew no matter what he couldn't let him down.

...

**A/N - Thanks for reading...Please leave a review if you can :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N - I apologise for the delay in updating this story it wasn't my intention, and I can assure you it is still very much alive. I've had a busy summer and haven't been able to give it the attention it deserves. But I hope this chapter makes up for it.**

**I also wanted to say thank you SO much to all my loyal readers. You really do inspire me to keep going, and I am forever grateful for your input. I do have the basic storyline planned out for this, but it changes slightly all the time, so if anyone has any ideas/suggestions I would love to hear them. Either leave a review or PM me.**

* * *

"Sheriff Grimes was up here again earlier, he wanted to make sure we were all taking the correct precautions, considering recent events," Hershel Greene said slowly and seriously. His wrinkled, pale blue eyes, flicked individually across the faces of his two daughters as they sat around the dinner table in the kitchen of their family farm.

"Now, I just want to make completely sure that you girls are being extra careful out there. No going out anywhere on your own, if you're stuck anywhere you call me, Glenn or Ottis - and no getting into any kind of conversations with strange men." The old man lectured, putting his fork down dramatically to stare at Beth and Maggie, fixing them with his full attention.

"Dad," Maggie rolled her eyes from where she was sat closely to Glenn.

"You might think I'm being overly protective, but you can't take any risks girls," he continued looking to Glenn for confirmation.

"It's okay Dad we won't do anything stupid," Beth smiled sweetly, reassuring her father. She knew herself and Maggie were both grown women now, but in their father's eyes they would always be his little girls. They were all he had now and he would do anything to protect them and keep them safe from harm.

"So, Rick came up here again so soon?" Maggie asked, changing the subject. "Any developments?"

"None that he chose to share with us," Hershel replied.

"I hope they catch this psychopath soon," Glenn spoke up from where he had been sat quietly next to Maggie at the Greene dinner table.

"Don't we all son," Hershel said slowly.

"Rick's a good man, he'll be doing everything in his power to find him," Maggie stated firmly.

"Best Sheriff this town's ever seen," Hershel agreed.

Hershel Greene had lived in the town his whole life, the farm having been passed down through generations of Greens. Rick Grimes was the first sheriff he had heard of that was completely by the book - not dirty, and not swayed by the promise of good liquor and beautiful woman either. He was an honest family man, sensible and headstrong, and Hershel trusted his judgement completely.

"Yeah," Maggie agreed with her father. "Him and Shane are both good guys. Not too sure about Deputy Dixon though. Lord knows why Rick took him on. He's so rude and unfriendly all the time, and aint he related to that redneck scumbag Merle Dixon too?"

Beth pushed her food around her plate with her fork. Feeling her heart rate suddenly speeding up at the mention of Daryl.

"You shouldn't be so quick to judge, Maggie. I'm sure Rick has his reasons for taking him on, and he doesn't seem all that bad to me. Even gave Bethy a ride into town the other night, didn't he?" Hershel said, turning to face his youngest daughter.

Beth nodded, feeling her cheeks flush pink as she noticed Glenn raising his eyebrows and Maggie's mouth opening slightly in shock.

"Yeah, he's actually not what you think once you talk to him, he's a decent guy," Beth found herself speaking up in defence of her secret crush and new friend, Daryl Dixon.

Maggie made a face, but before she could say anything further Beth's phone went off loudly. She pulled it out of her shorts pocket to see it was a withheld number.

"I should take this," she said hesitantly, looking to her father.

Hershel waved his hand at her indicating it was okay as he chewed on a mouthful of food.

…..

"Hello," Beth said tentatively, stepping into the quiet hall.

"That Beth?" A gruff male voice asked.

Beth felt an instant flutter rush through her as she recognised who it was.

"Yeah," she replied, biting down on her lower lip.

"It's umm..Daryl," he said, and Beth smiled that he finally seemed to have accepted that they were on first name terms now.

"Sorry to call so late," he said.

"It's fine," she was quick to respond. "I wasn't doing much," she added with a shy smile that she felt certain he would be able to detect over the phone.

"Right," he mumbled awkwardly, and Beth could tell he wasn't one for talking on the phone much.

There was a brief silence from the other end and Beth suddenly felt her stomach knotting as she started to wonder what the reason was for his late call.

"It's just I was reviewing your statement with Sheriff Grimes, and we thought it would be useful if we went back out to the same area that you saw Lizzie and that man. We might possibly find something there, or you could remember something else," he explained.

Beth nodded slowly as she replied, "Yes of course, I'm free now if you like."

"Best to wait until tomorrow and the natural light's better," he said. "I'll pick you up around midday?"

"Okay, I'll need to clear it with Andrea but I'm sure it will be fine," she replied.

"Okay, thanks."

There was another brief pause. Almost as if they were both reluctant for the conversation to end there, but didn't quite know what else to say.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow then," Daryl eventually said ending the conversation.

...

"You'll see who tomorrow?" Shane asked curiously, walking past Daryl's desk as Daryl hung up the phone to Beth. Shane had signed off, but made no secret of the fact he was about to head over to Bobs for a few beers and had been trying to persuade Daryl to join him.

Daryl glanced over at him through his long hair. They had all been working late again, working around the clock on the murder investigation. Although Shane hadn't appeared to have contributed anything particularly productive to it yet, except go out on a few 'investigations' of his own.

"Beth Greene," Daryl replied casually, putting his hand up to brush his hair away from his vision. "Going over her witness statement out in the woods where it happened."

"The blonde girl that was in here earlier?" Tara spoke up from where she had been eavesdropping at her desk.

Daryl nodded once, turning to see Tara's eye's lighting up. "I can come with you if you like?" She offered.

"Sorry, but I think you'll be needed here," Shane cut in, amused. "Best leave Daryl here to look after sweet, young Beth," he added with a cocky smirk.

Daryl just shook his head in response.

Shane walked over to the door and raising his eyebrows he added with a bigger smirk, "Warning you though, Dixon. If old Hershel Greene catches you fooling around with his daughter he'll have a shot gun to your back before you can even turn around."

"Relax Walsh, we aint all like you. Some of us actually gotta job to do around here," Daryl was quick to respond. The last thing he wanted was for rumours to get out about him and Beth.

The smirk quickly disappeared and Shane scowled slightly before his eyes narrowed and he shot Daryl a puzzled look.

Daryl knew Shane thought it was a little strange, his lack of involvement with women, considering the amount of bored housewives and damsels in distress they came across. But Daryl had never been any good with the opposite sex and women like that just didn't interest him.

The types he had used to come across in the days of following his older brother around did nothing for him either. They were usually bitching about something, with nasty looking fake nails and bright coloured lipstick, always expecting something from him and Merle, and good for only one thing if he was desperate. Then there were the types he used to admire from afar - the pretty, shy girls from nicer homes, that he knew were always out of his league, which made him mad and behave like a jerk.

So instead these days Daryl preferred his own company. It was simpler that way. Never letting anyone in or getting too close to anyone. Which also included casual encounters now too if he could help it. It just wasn't his thing.

"Haven't you got a wife and kid to get home to?" Tara interrupted, fixing Shane with an unimpressed stare.

The smirk from earlier had completely faded from Shane's face now, and was fully replaced with a fresh look of annoyance as he left the building in silence, not looking at either Tara or Daryl..

...

Hearing the door open, Beth looked up from her desk to see Daryl walking towards her in his uniform.

She flashed him a bright smile. Her blue eyes shining as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

His lips curled up into a sort of smile in return.

"Deputy Dixon," Andrea suddenly said appearing briskly out of her office. Her perfectly made up green eyes fixing on him as she flashed him a smile.

"Dr Grimes," he greeted, nodding in response to his bosses wife. "Was just wondering if I could borrow Beth here for a coupe of hours? It's important."

"Of course, borrow away," Andrea replied her eyes widening with amusement as her bright red lips smiled. "She's very helpful."

Daryl looked back to Beth to see her steady gaze on him, blinking those goddam beautiful blue eyes of hers that were starting to drive him crazy.

"Right," he mumbled, still watching as she stood up, shuffling a few pieces of paper on her desk.

"See you later, Andrea," Beth said, waving to her boss. "I won't be long."

"Take as long as you need, we can manage here, Michonne's in today," Andrea replied as Beth turned to walk out with Daryl.

...

Daryl held the door open for Beth as she climbed out of the passenger seat to his car. She turned to look at him and a shy smile played on her lips. His eyes drifted towards her legs, she was wearing trousers this time and he couldn't help but notice how they clung to her figure nicely. He glanced away and rubbed his hand over his face.

"This way," he jerked his head in the direction of the woods.

Beth nodded.

They walked along next to each other making their way through the woods at the back of Beth's family home. The same woods that all her life up until recently, she had felt completely safe in. Now though she couldn't help but feel a little more unsettled out here. Even in day light she wouldn't want to be out here alone. Daryl wasn't saying much, but she was glad he was there. With him she felt safe.

She opened her mouth to say something to him, before thinking better of it as they continued to walk deeper into the woods. Their feet crunching on the leaves carpeting the muddy ground beneath them, the only sound being the whispering of the trees around them. Beth glanced sideways to take a brief look at Daryl as he marched along beside her in silence. He looked serious and purposeful. She wondered what he was thinking, but she didn't dare ask.

"Was it down here?" he questioned as they took the path that led down to the small river running through the woods.

"Yeah," Beth responded, her soft blue eyes catching his for a second, before she blinked and looked away.

Coming to a steep slope, Daryl skidded down in seconds. Looking back with caution he saw Beth following him with ease. He was impressed. She was clearly a seasoned outdoors girl too, not quite as delicate as she looked.

"What?" Beth asked, noticing him fixing her with a look.

"No-nothing," he mumbled, averting her gaze and walking briskly on in the direction of the river.

"See anything?" She asked as she caught up to him, noticing him crouching down examining some marks on the ground.

"Someones been here recently," he muttered. Noticing there was more than one pair of prints. "These are new," he added, rubbing his chin. "Could be nothing, but I'll call it in and get someone down here from forensics to take a look."

"Right," she responded, watching him. "She hadn't known him before he was a sheriff's deputy, but it seemed weird somehow, hearing him talk like that."

He stood up, brushing the dirt from his trousers. A small thing he'd had to get used to, keeping his uniform in reasonably good condition.

"Need to see where they lead," he mumbled.

Beth felt an uneasy feeling hit her insides, studying Daryl's face. Something wasn't right.

They walked on.

"I need you to show me the exact spot you think you saw Lizzie," Daryl said, facing her.

Beth swallowed, her cheeks picking up a rosy tint with the intensity of his stare, through the edges of his long hair his eyes were so deep and expressive.

"Here," she said, stopping him. "She was stood right about here," she explained, noticing the bump in the river that she remembered Lizze had been staring at that day.

"Right," Daryl said interested, glancing around.

"She was looking at the water right here, as if she was mesmerised by it - and she had this rat crawling up her arm," Beth said, looking out at the babbling river in front of her re-enacting the scene in her head. '_What could Lizzie have been thinking? If only she'd paid her more attention!'_

"There really isn't much more I can tell you," Beth said flatly, still gazing out in front of her.

"What about later? When you came back. Was it the same spot?"

"Yeah, she was still right here. But this time the man I mentioned was here too."

"Was he stood right next to her? Daryl asked, taking a step closer towards Beth, trying to get a clear mental image in his mind.

"Yeah, he was stood right about where you're stood now," Beth explained, biting down on her lip and trembling slightly, he was just inches from her, she could smell his cologne. "Maybe a little closer," she added quietly.

Daryl felt a tingle spread across him with the gentle softness to her voice, together with the closeness of her body. He looked into her eyes again, she was so damn pretty it was killing him.

He cleared his throat and took a few steps back, refocusing and glancing at the ground, "You remember anything else? Anything about their conversation?" He asked slowly.

Beth closed her eyes.

"Umm...I think he may have had something in his hand, it could have been a small plastic bag….possibly with pills in it or something. I'm not too sure. He was doing all the talking, it was like he was explaining something to her, or trying to persuade her of something. She was just staring at him - he was saying something like, '_You have to do this'..."_

She paused, before adding,_ "_I know it sounds weird saying all this now, but Lizzie was always doing weird things, it wasn't exactly unusual for her," her voice wobbled as she stopped talking, her eyes moistening with emotion.

"S'okay," Daryl said gently, witnessing her troubled expression and sensing her pain. "You weren't to know what was gonna happen," he reassured.

"Maggie always used to say they were a weird lot, the Sammuels family," Beth explained further, wiping at her eyes.

"You sure you hadn't seen the guy before," Daryl asked again just to be sure.

"No," Beth said firmly. "Never seen him before in my life."

"She lived in that direction," Daryl said, pointing to their right, "Come on, we'll head back that way."

…..

"You spend a lot of time outdoors growing up?" She asked curiously as they moved down the river a little and she noticed him examining more marks around them on the ground.

"Had to," he responded. "Tracking, hunting - being out here was all I knew," he muttered.

"Yeah," she replied. "Growing up, me and my friends used to come out here all the time over the summer, staying out till it was late and stuff."

She sighed.

"I just can't believe someone got murdered out here, it's horrible. Knowing someone bad was here. It used to be so safe."

"No-where's safe. There are bad people everywhere. You just need to know how to spot em," he said bluntly, frowning a little at her naivety.

"My Dad gave me and Maggie a lecture last night bout not going out around here alone and not talking to strange men," Beth said with a nervous laugh.

"Wise man, your father," Daryl responded with a straight-face.

"You tell him you were coming out here to do this?" he found himself asking.

"No - but this is fine. I'm with you. You're one of the good guys," she said with a bright smile, watching him to see that his eyes lit up a little, before he looked away embarrassed. She could tell he wasn't used to receiving compliments.

"Aint what most folk think," he muttered gruffly.

"Well they'd be wrong," she said, stopping as they reached the edge of the small river, to catch his eye and force him to look straight at her, the blueness of her gaze sparkling against the reflection of the water. They were unnervingly close. His eyes darted to her lips. Who was this strange beautiful girl that looked at him like she knew him - the real him?

Powerful rays of sun beamed down through the tree's above, hitting the water around them. Daryl didn't say anything in response to her last statement, he didn't know what to say. The sound of running water in the river had a relaxing, hypnotic quality, and in that moment they both wanted to stop and stay there, they just wanted time to stand still.

A sudden snapping of twigs from the trees behind them quickly brought them back to reality. _They weren't alone._ Within seconds Daryl had his gun raised.

"Stay there," he hissed to Beth, signalling with his hand for her to stay put.

Beth nodded, alarmed, her eyes widening as she watched him creep away from her, anxiety hitting her at the thought of who could be lurking.

With caution Daryl approached the direction the noise had come from, adrenaline building in his system. Whoever was there was silent, they had possibly been spying on him and Beth.

"Come out," he yelled. His gun still poised and ready for action, he wasn't about to take any chances. Not with Beth here.

Still there was no response as he stepped forwards, pulling back the thick branches to the tree in his vision.

"I said.." he cut off, coming face to face with a deer. It looked at him for a split second, frozen to the spot, before it darted off terrified into the distance.

"Was just a damn deer," Daryl exclaimed, rubbing his forehead with his gun, sensing Beth coming up behind him.

"Oh," Beth said, pressing herself closer in to his back to get a look at the wild animal in the distance. He smelled good. Manly and earthy with a hint of leather mixed in with his cologne, a scent she wanted to inhale more of.

"If I had my crossbow could have got a good shot from here," he muttered.

"You wouldn't shoot it, would you?" Beth questioned. "It looks so peaceful out here."

He turned to look back at her in bewilderment and shrugged. "Thats a weeks meals there." He shook his head, walking away from her, satisfied the immediate threat was now over.

"What?" She called out to him.

"Don't know much bout survival, do you girl?"

She raised an eyebrow with an unimpressed face. She knew by his standards she had led a sheltered life, but she still knew a thing or two about life in the outdoors. Perhaps she would surprise him one day.

"Know more than most, I've camped a lot, and I'm willing to learn more." Her face softened, "Perhaps you could teach me, Deputy Dixon," she added with a playful smile. "Teach me how to hunt and shoot and look after myself out here. Never know when I might need it."

She could tell by the slightly flustered expression appearing on his face, she had embarrassed him again as he marched on. His lips twitching into a faint smile, keeping his eyes directly in front of him.

The thought of camping out here with Beth should seem absurd to Daryl, but it didn't it actually excited him. Which confused him.

He looked back to her and he jerked his head. "Come on, lets get you back."

**A/N - Thanks for reading! Please leave a review if you can :)**


	7. Chapter 7

Beth wandered into Bob's Bar, loud music, together with the jangle of voices filled the air as she approached the bar area. Her bright blue eyes became round and alert as she scanned the sea of faces for Amy. She sighed and chewed down on her lip as she quickly realized her friend wasn't there yet.

"You okay, Beth? What can I get you?" The bartender Martinez was there to take her order in a flash, his dark gaze dropping momentarily to her neckline.

"I'm fine for the minute - I'm waiting for Amy," Beth explained politely. She knew all the men in their small town were on the alert to look out for all their women folk at present after the news had spread round like a wildfire that the streets weren't safe and there was a potential manic killer on the loose.

Sinking down into a bar stool, Beth twisted her hair around her finger in a seemingly absent minded way. It wasn't unusual for Amy to be late. They had arranged to meet for drinks at 7pm, but it was Amy's night off from working here and Beth had half expected her friend to be running a little late.

Reaching to pull her phone out of her purse to check for messages, Beth noticed a familiar looking guy with dark hair and soft brown eyes stood across the other side of the bar from her. He was the kind of guy it was impossible to miss - insanely handsome and immaculately dressed, and something about him really caught Beth's attention as she gazed at him for a moment. Before she had the chance to look away, he turned to flash her an instant charming and confident smile. She recognised him immediately, it was Gareth, the pushy pharmaceuticals rep from the other day, when she had been working alone in the office.

She felt a flush creep up her cheeks with embarrassment as she looked down at her hands, the last thing she wanted to do was give him the wrong impression by staring at him across the room like an idiot, and she silently willed Amy to hurry up.

"You know that guy over there?" Martinez questioned curiously, coming back over to where Beth was sat on her own.

Beth cringed - was it that obvious Gareth was now looking straight at her? She really didn't want to appear like some stupid girl drooling over some smugly good-looking guy that wasn't even her type anyway.

"Oh, nah, not really," she replied casually.

"Well he sure can't take his eyes off you," Martinez shrugged, as he was called away to serve someone else now the bar was started to get more busy. It was the most popular drinking establishment in their small town and was pretty busy most nights. Now, seemed to be no exception either, everyone wanting to meet up for a few sociable drinks after a hard day's work, and all anyone seemed to want to talk about at the moment was the murder of poor Lizzie Sammuals.

"It's Beth, right? - We meet again." Beth suddenly heard a smooth male voice say by her side. "Here all by yourself?"

She flinched, her wide eyes looked up immediately to see Gareth was stood right beside her. His face was perfectly symmetrical and his dreamy light brown eyes were enough to make any girl go weak at the knees. But despite being gorgeous, there was just something about him that creeped Beth out slightly. He just seemed too polished, too perfect.

"I'm actually meeting a friend," she mumbled back.

"I thought so. A girl as pretty as you would hardly be here all alone," he flattered with a warm smile.

Beth bit her lip and smiled weakly back, glancing across his chiseled jawline and angular cheek bones. "She should be here any minute," she continued, not wanting to get into a longer conversation with the handsome stranger.

"Well, then let me buy you a drink while you wait," he was quick to suggest.

"Oh, thats very kind but I'm really fine thanks," she replied.

"Nonsense, you're sat here all alone with no drink. That will never do. I'm actually new in town here and could do with a friend - so let's have a drink while you wait, you'd actually be doing _me_ a favor," he insisted, looking over to catch Martinez's eye behind the bar.

Beth drew in a breath. She didn't normally accept drinks from strangers but this one didn't seem to be taking no for an answer. Plus, he might be a bit pushy, but Beth knew he was only being nice to her to try and get her to put a good word in with Andrea, hoping her boss would buy into some of the new samples he was paid to sell. She'd had other rep's try and get round her in the past too, so she knew the score.

She silently watched him move up the bar to say something to Martinez that she couldn't hear, and she relaxed a little. She didn't want to give him the wrong idea. But there was no harm in one drink while she waited, _was there?_

Instinctively her blue-eyed gaze flickered back over to the bar entrance again, looking out for Amy. When her stomach unexpectedly started to somersault as she saw Daryl walking in.

Her night was getting more interesting by the second Beth thought - her eyes suddenly wide and alert as she shifted in her stool a little, adjusting her long, blonde hair over her shoulders, the heels of her tan cowboy boots catching on the metal frame as she put her hand down to touch the light denim of her skimpy shorts. The bar was busy and she wondered if Daryl had clocked her straightaway, as her eyes subtly looked back over in his direction shyly. She couldn't recall the last time she had seen him in here, and she couldn't help but be curious as to what he was dong here right now.

Was he here to meet someone?

He looked a little on edge as his dark blue eyes looked out through the hair falling into his eyes, and he scanned the busy room. Beth felt certain he had noticed her too as his gaze stopped in her direction for a moment, causing a rush of butterflies to rocket through her. He put his hand up to lightly rub his chin as though he was debating something, and he appeared deep in thought as he looked away from her and continued to look around. Beth felt a brief surge of disappointment that he hadn't held her gaze or moved over in her direction, but she also felt a little relief she wasn't quite sure what she would say to him.

But within moments Beth looked over again in Daryl's direction hoping to subtly attract his attention again, and her pupils flared as she wondered if he would come over. Just the thought of being close to him again stirred a fluttering deep within her, Beth couldn't remember the last time a guy had evoked this kind of response in her. If she was honest Beth had thought of nothing all day but the time they had spent alone together in the woods the day before. It might have been brief and just something they'd had to do. But she had felt so relaxed in Daryl's company in a way she had never done with guys her own age, where she constantly felt judged and as though she had to pretend to be something she wasn't all the time. They didn't listen when she talked.

With Daryl it was different. He seemed to get her. He genuinely seemed interested in what she had to say.

As if sensing her gaze he glanced back in her direction again and this time he had to acknowledge her as he simply nodded once at her, his face was unreadable and his body language seemed awkward as he hesitantly started to make his way nearer to her.

"There you go..I took the liberty of ordering something extra special, I hope you don't mind," Gareth suddenly appeared and said, holding up two flutes of peach coloured sparkling liquid. "Champagne Bellini's, my favourite!"

Beth's expression dulled, she pressed her lips together as her eyes were drawn to the impressive looking drinks in his hand and she looked from them up to his mesmerising, persuasive brown eyes again, before they slid subtly back over to where Daryl was stood. This time she was sure she detected the faintest trace of a scowl forming on Daryl's face, and his eyes narrowed into slits as he looked away from her and Gareth.

Beth felt her heart quickly sink as she watched Daryl turn and walk away to the opposite side of the bar from where she was sat.

...

Ignoring Beth, Daryl quickly spotted Carol sat in a booth on her own by the window. She had a large glass of red wine in front of her and she looked miles away, as though she had the weight of the world on her shoulders as she sat serious and alone in the middle of the crowded room alive with the sound of people laughing and joking all around her.

Sensing him walking over, she looked up and gave him a weak smile. "Thanks for coming."

"No problem," he replied in a low grumbling voice.

He sat down opposite her, unable to stop himself from quickly stealing another small glance in Beth's direction before turning his attention back to his friend. The sight of the gorgeous young blonde at the bar, had had an effect on him from the moment he had walked in and spotted her, sensations that were starting to become all too familiar whenever she was around. Strange, alien sensations, but the sight and thought of her made him feel good, he knew that. After the few encounters he'd had with over the past week or so, he had been stupidly starting to believe that maybe they had some sort of a connection, that maybe perhaps she was someone that he could potentially get to know better. That wouldn't judge him and was actually worth spending time with. _Maybe!_

But he'd felt like a complete fucking fool thinking things like that, the instant he had set eyes on the well- dressed, good-looking and smug seeming guy she was in here with tonight. He looked like the type of the man that had money and status, and proper game with women. The sort of man he knew Beth Greene would want to spend time with, would want to date, to introduce to her family, and to also do _other_ things with.

The thought of that made him feel an uncontrollable urge to go over there and smash the guys head up against the side of the bar that he was so smugly perched up against. Because uniform or not, wasn't that the kind of guy he really was? just some jackass redneck, socially awkward and over fifteen years older than Beth Greene at least. The fact that he was trying to turn his life around now, and thanks to Rick work for the sheriff's department, was irrelevant in the bigger picture. She was too good for him.

He grimaced, and furrowing his brows he told himself he didn't give a damn anyway. He'd never allowed a woman to get under his skin before, he wasn't about to start now. Screw Beth Greene, with her perfect smile and sparkling blue eyes, teasing a man with that luscious blonde hair and those near perfect, long shapely legs of hers that she insisted on showing off whenever she got the chance. Screw her and her prick boyfriend.

He had more important things to think about. He turned back to Carol, "Where's Sophia?"

"She's fine, she's at Lori's. She can stay there tonight," Carol answered in a shaky voice.

"What happened?" Daryl asked seriously.

She didn't answer him straight away, and unable to help himself Daryl found his hard eyes quickly flash back over to the bar while he waited for Carol to respond. He scowled when he noticed Beth was now smiling at something her male companion was saying to her as his arm gently touched her shoulder and he leaned into her ear to talk to her over the loud music.

"I got you a beer," Carol said forcing a smile, averting the question.

"I'm fine," Daryl replied brusquely.

"Have a beer, you're not working tonight, you deserve it all that hard work you're doing round the clock to find Lizzie's killer," Carol persisted, sliding the bottle over the table to him.

His mouth set into a firm line, ignoring it. "How bad is it?" He asked again, his eye's deadly serious now fixing Carol with all his attention, he knew she wouldn't have called him here unless it was bad. That was the only thing that mattered now.

She looked away from him and sipped her wine. Daryl was the only person in their town that Carol felt she could be completely honest with. She knew he would never judge her, and she also knew, he kept it hidden well but he had a kind heart underneath his rough exterior.

"Show me," he ordered, his voice low and gruff.

Carol slowly unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse to reveal the top of a deep purple, bruised gash, she winced as she put her hand up to grip the fabric of her blouse with one hand, before reaching for her wine again with the other.

Daryl clenched his teeth, feeling his fists form into two tight balls. If it weren't for his badge he would march over and teach Ed Peletier a lesson, he'd always known there was something dodgy about the man right from the first moment he'd laid eyes on him. He could spot the bad ones a mile off. This kind of shit was just a little too close to home for Daryl too. It felt personal.

"You should see a doctor," he said firmly, studying the older woman intensely with empathy and kindness flooding his eyes, he was concerned for her.

"No, I'm okay. I can't keep rushing to Andrea all the time. This is something I need to sort out on my own," Carol replied.

"Y'know he aint gonna stop. He'll keep on going until he kills ya," Daryl hissed with passion now, screwing his face up and stabbing a finger in her direction. "You got a kid to think bout."

"I know," she agreed, raising her eyebrows weakly, her face completely serious as she looked up to meet his eye. "I know I can't go back."

"I've been doing some research," he responded, his eyes locking with hers. "There's this shelter in Atlanta."

"No - no, I can't go to another shelter, not again, he'll find me," she shook her head.

"This one is different, he won't find it, they have top security and it's further away. Take your kid and get the hell away from him," he snapped back.

"It's not the answer, Daryl. _This_ is our home, right here. Sophia has school and friends, I can't take her away from that. What we need is some place to stay, just for a while. A place where he won't be able get to us."

Daryl looked down at the bottle of beer in front of him, he knew what she was asking. He picked it up and took a sip, and he looked back over to the bar again to see Beth and the guy were still there but the smile had faded from Beth's face, she looked more serious and thoughtful now. He wondered what she was thinking? He couldn't help it. He told himself he didn't care, but he did.

"It won't be for long, Daryl," Carol said quietly.

He turned his eyes away from Beth and back to the older troubled woman.

...

Beth sipped her drink slowly through gritted teeth, she was half listening to what Gareth was saying to her, the other half of her unable to stop thinking about the fact Daryl was in the bar too.

She had thought hanging out here wasn't his style. But the fact that he was here now, under different circumstances, would have provided the prefect opportunity for her to have sparked up another casual conversation with the usually surly, sheriff's deputy that she had been crushing on so badly recently. But as much as she would love to be chatting to Daryl again instead of the annoyingly perfect Gareth, Daryl seemed to be fully engrossed in another conversation with Carol Peletier.

"Would you excuse me a moment?" Gareth said as his cell went off noisily from his pocket and he walked away to take the call.

Sat alone again, Beth folded her arms against her chest and looked over to the booth Daryl and Carol were sat in. They looked to be having a pretty serious conversation. Daryl was doing all the talking and Carol's eye's were focused on him as he spoke passionately. Beth's curiosity was roused. Daryl never really spoke to anyone for that long, and rather than appear his usual moody self, he seemed to be addressing Carol as a friend with genuine concern. If he'd been on duty Beth would have presumed he was advising her in his role as deputy. Most probably something to do with her scumbag husband. The whole town knew Ed Peletier was bad news, you only had to look at him to see the man had a mean streak. But as Andrea had stated many a time, what went on between a husband and wife behind closed doors was difficult to prove and hard to intervene with. Why Carol had always seemed so hell bent on protecting her asshole husband, Beth could never work out. But again Andrea had said that those types of situations were more complicated than most people seemed to realise.

Right now Daryl most definitely didn't appear to be on duty, he had a beer and he was dressed in a leather vest and tatty jeans. Beth presumed he must be into motorbikes like his brother and there was definitely something dark and sexy about that.

She sipped the fruity, sparkling cocktail in her hand, and threw the odd couple another curious glance. She couldn't help but in a strange way feel a little envious of Carol at that moment. It was clear that Daryl cared about her on some level, and Beth wished that it was her he was staring at the way he was staring at Carol right now. Giving her his full undivided attention, like she was the most important thing in the world. Apart from look her way a couple of times when he'd first come in, Daryl now seemed completely oblivious to Beth's presence.

She bit down on her lower lip, fighting the strong urge to go over and speak to him again. Beth wanted to ask him how the murder investigation was going? Whether they were any closer to catching whoever had been responsible? But she knew now wasn't the right time.

As if sensing her inquisitive gaze, Daryl suddenly jerked his head to slide his eyes over in Beth's direction, from where he was still sat opposite Carol.

Beth gulped and instantly blushed and for the briefest of seconds their eyes met, before she looked away and down at her drink again. A small tingle spreading through her.

"Sorry, work call," Gareth came back and announced with an apologetic smile.

Beth let a small sigh under her breath, cursing Gareth, Daryl obviously thought she was on a date here with him or something she had seen it in his eyes, he had looked almost hurt. He was probably thinking that she didn't want to talk to him because she was here with Gareth. Which was the last thing Beth wanted Daryl to think and completely untrue. She barely knew Gareth and she had bumped into him here tonight through complete coincidence, and she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was definitely something about him, about the way he smiled at her and studied her face, that made her feel a little uneasy.

"Listen, Beth, I have to go now. But if this isn't too presumptuous of me, I'd like to take you out to dinner soon. Get to know you better. As I already mentioned I'm new here in town and I don't know that many people," Gareth said smoothly, almost as if he had said the same thing a thousand times before.

Beth's face went blank and she blinked a few times, twisting her mouth as she started hesitantly, "I um…" Wondering how best to blow him out.

"You don't have a boyfriend do you?" he was quick to cut in with another slick smile, his eyes widening and dazzling her as he stared at her intensely.

_'Lie, lie, lie,'_ Beth silently willed herself as she blinked some more, digging her nails into her palm. Her big blue eyes instinctively floated across to where Daryl was still sat with Carol, just in time to see Carol lean across the table and plant a little kiss on Daryl's stubbled cheek.

"No, I don't," Beth found herself blurting out turning back to Gareth, her heart sinking slightly.

"Okay then, well I'll meet you back here tomorrow?" he suggested, a twinkle appearing in his brown eyes, and Beth could just tell that he always got what he wanted.

"I can't tomorrow, I have plans, " she was quick to say, looking back to see Carol had now gone and Daryl was sat on his own in the booth, sipping his beer while clearly making no secret of watching her and Gareth now.

"Okay, well Friday then?" Gareth asked, unfazed.

"I'm not sure, my boss may need me to babysit," Beth lied, a heat spreading up her body.

"Here's my card, call me to confirm," he said, handing her an expensive looking business card, flashing her a suggestive wink. "Bye Beth."

...

"_Who was that?_" Amy suddenly appeared and exclaimed, her mouth gaping open as her green eyes followed Gareth wandering off into the other direction.

"Just a pharmaceuticals rep, wanting to sweeten me up," Beth replied dismissively, rolling her eyes.

"Looked pretty sweet to me," Amy responded. "Maybe I should have a word with my sister about a job, if you get guys as hot as that chasing you."

Beth screwed her face up.

"Sorry I'm late," Amy said, changing the subject, sinking down into Gareth's vacant seat.

"Let me guess, Randall?" Beth asked a little annoyed.

"No. Actually he's been acting a little weird," Amy replied, furrowing her brow, before she went on to explain. "Actually I was at Andrea's watching Judith. There was some emergency she and Rick were both called to."

"Oh," Beth responded, her eyes flickering.

She looked back over to where Daryl was still sat in the booth, if Amy hadn't turned up when she had, Beth would have taken it upon herself to go over and say hi to him. But now it just didn't feel right. She'd missed her chance. Before she could give it any more thought he stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket to put it to his ear and say something, his face was serious. Beth couldn't hear what he was saying but she was pretty sure she could make out from his lips, he said, 'Be right there," before he started to make his way over to the exit. His eyes were unable to avoid Beth's as he walked past where she was sat with Amy at the same spot at the bar - and he gave her a half smile and nod. Nothing more, to Beth's disappointment. He looked serious and stressed and she wanted to ask him if he was okay, but he was gone.

Martinez appeared at the bar again to take their order.

"Two tequila," Amy said, oblivious to Daryl walking past them and the effect it had provoked on Beth.

"Y'know it's double hour," Martinez replied, raising a brow with a smirk.

"Well, then it's double double?" Amy said to Beth, her eyes lighting up.

Beth shrugged, the corner of her mouth quirking up. _"Okay fine with me!"_

_**A/N - Thanks for reading - Sorry for the angst and lack of cute Bethyl in this chapter! But it's setting things up for some hot action in the next few chapters - and lets face it, it's never going to be plain sailing for our favourite couple! ...Please leave a review if you can :)**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N - The summer is back and so is this story! :) If anyone is still reading, I would love to hear from you. As well as any new readers! I had a bad case of writers block with it, but I am back! **_

* * *

Daryl wasted no time in getting to the morgue after picking up Rick's frantic call as he had been sat alone in the bar after his meeting with Carol. He hadn't been on duty but he had still been willing to get over there on Rick's request as fast as he could. Daryl had come to realise uniform or not he was always half on the job in their small town, never able to fully relax, and certainly not now with the sinister murder investigation under way. He had a bad feeling about things, really bad, and something was telling him things were only going to get worse.

"Thanks for coming." Rick rushed across the room to greet him as soon Daryl appeared at the entrance to their small town morgue where Lizze Sammuels body was still being held.

"S'fine," Daryl dismissed, his eyes quickly surveying the room in front of him. Rick was joined by his wife and local town doctor Andrea, the forensics specialist Denise and the new trainee deputy Tara.

"Listen you aint going to believe what we've just seen," Rick said alarmingly. He looked as though he had seen a ghost. They all did.

Daryl instinctively shifted his gaze to the body lying motionless on the slab in a zipped up body bag. The room around it was eerily quiet, but there was the stench of blood and death everywhere still, despite it having been there for days now. He grimaced as he looked back to Rick awaiting his explanation…..

…...

"He asked you out on a date?" Amy asked in a little awe as she sipped her drink next to Beth.

Beth blinked coming out of her own little world where she had been daydreaming about Daryl to look at her friend. Amy was still going on about Gareth after she'd spotted his business card in Beth's hand. "Mmm…" Beth muttered in response, not wanting to think about how she was going to have to try and get out of the date Gareth thought they were going on. He had been so damn persuasive, he hadn't taken no for an answer, despite her lame attempt at blowing him out.

"But I'm not gonna go," Beth added casually, taking a small sip from her drink too.

"What?" Amy exclaimed, "Are you crazy? He was gorgeous."

Beth shrugged, "Not really my type, looks aren't everything you know."

"Beth, what has got into you these days? First you turn down Randall's hot friend Dave, now some mega hot guy from the city asks you out and you're acting like it's no big deal. If I didn't know better I'd think…."

"Think what?" Beth cut in brusquely.

"Nothing," Amy shook her head in annoyance.

"There was just something about him, I just didn't get a good vibe," Beth explained, hoping Amy would change the subject, Gareth was the last person she wanted to spend the evening talking about.

Amy looked back at her friend with her mouth gaped open slightly. "Beth, you need to stop making up excuses and just start dating, you're never going to find a man unless you get over whatever hang-ups you have that are stopping you from just going for it with a guy like that."

"I don't have any hang-ups," Beth snapped in irritation. "But, if you like him so much why don't _you_ go on a date with him instead? Your taste in men has always been a little questionable," Beth spat out further, realising instantly that had probably been a little out of line when she saw Amy's hurt face, but it needed to be said all the same. Amy did have terrible taste in men. Before Randall there had been Nicholas who had two timed her and then dumped her, and then there was Aidan the arrogant jerk she had lost her virginity to who had told half the town and then dumped her back at high school, and now she was drooling over Gareth who despite being handsome was clearly another jerk and a little creepy too.

Amy's cheeks reddened in response to Beth's statement as she glared and replied, "Well, I could say the same about you, getting rides from Daryl Dixon."

Beth's eyes narrowed, "What?"

"Andrea said he picked you up from the office the other day?" Amy responded.

"That was a work thing! I had to go over my witness statement with him," Beth was quick to explain sounding defensive.

"Alone in his car?" Amy mocked, raising her perfectly sculpted brows.

"No, actually in the woods," Beth explained, realising as she said it how that sounded.

Amy shook her head and her lips turned up into a slight smirk before she giggled and repeated, "_The woods?"_

Beth smiled too, "It aint how it sounds," she said, pushing her hair away from her flustered face. "He's not like that."

"All men are like that," Amy responded.

"Nah, not him," Beth said firmly staring down at her drink, wondering how much to actually confide in her friend about the depth of her growing feelings for the sullen deputy and how confused she was by some of his actions.

"Well it's no loss either way, he's a jerk and a hot-head. I remember a time he punched Nicholas in the face in here, just because he'd had a disagreement with his asshole brother Merle over something," Amy said rolling her eyes as she remembered the scene with her ex and the Dixon brothers.

Beth flinched, she knew so little about Daryl's past but she felt certain of the kind of man he was and he was no jerk like some of Amy's previous boyfriends. "He was probably just sticking up for his brother, I really don't think he's like that," Beth dismissed, "And Nicholas probably deserved it anyway."

Beth knew she had really hit a raw nerve then, Amy had never really gotten over Nicholas, but Beth had always known he was bad news, Glenn had hired him as manager for one of his restaurants but he'd had to fire him after he'd caught him stealing from them.

"You never liked Nicholas!" Amy exclaimed as her face turned sour again.

"No," Beth replied, "I didn't. He was a waste of space." It wasn't just the incident at Glenn's restaurant that made her think that either, but Beth wasn't about to tell Amy about the other occasion when Nicholas had put the moves on her behind Amy's back. Beth didn't know Daryl that well, but what she did know of him she couldn't imagine him ever behaving like that.

"Y'know what, I'm tired, and Randall said he might come over when he finishes work one night, so I'm going to head home," Amy grumbled with an even more hurt look on her pretty face.

Beth's eyes widened with concern, she knew she had overstepped the mark now and really upset her friend. Amy had also said earlier that she hadn't heard from Randall for a few days so it was hardly likely he'd keep his word on stopping by to see her any time soon either if he was avoiding her calls, and Beth didn't want her rushing off like this. She reached her hand over to touch her friends, "Amy," she said softly trying to catch her eye.

Amy pulled her hand away from Beth's and looked away from her as Beth detected a few tears sprouting in her eyes. Beth felt terrible, she hated it when they argued.

"I was going to call a cab, we could wait together?" Beth suggested in a friendly tone.

"If it's all the same with you I'd like to walk, I could do with the fresh air," Amy said, clearly still in a huff as she slid off her bar stool. "I'll call you," she said coldly, before walking away.

"Amy wait," Beth yelled after her, remembering what Daryl has said about not wandering around on their own at the moment.

…...

Daryl drove in silence, scarcely able to get his head around Rick's explanation of events, _and_ Andrea's _and_ Denise's _and_ Tara's! _Bodies didn't just come back to life, did they?_

But apparently this one had. Denise had been working on her own when she had heard growling, she had called Rick and Andrea, and Tara had been on duty. When they had arrived at the morgue they had found Lizzie's cold dead eyes had opened, rabid and bloodshot she had looked at them before she had reached out with her hands to try and grab them, then her eyes had suddenly closed again and she had dropped back dead again like nothing had happened. It made no sense. _But, for all four of them to have seen it?_ Daryl rubbed his beard as he thought it through.

He slowed down and took his foot off the gas slightly as he approached Bob's bar, noticing a familiar blonde stood outside on her own. Beth!

The dick part of him wanted to speed on by, seeing as he wasn't on duty, Rick had just called on him as he had said he was the only person apart from Andrea that he knew he could trust, and seeing Beth now brought back the uncontrollable feelings of slight anger and jealousy Daryl had had experienced earlier when he had clocked her with that smug-looking guy back at the bar. But the decent side to Daryl over-ruled that and he knew he had to put his personal feelings to one side, there was no way he was going to leave her there on her own and not check she was okay.

"Beth," he called out attracting her attention. She looked over immediately and he could see her eyes were worried, she had been crying even. Despite that though she broke into a small forced smile to see him

"What ya doing out here alone?" he asked in a rough gravelly voice, looking at her through his hair.

"It's a long story," she replied a little shakily, biting down on her lip.

"Come on, get in," he jerked his head towards the passenger seat.

Beth felt the smile fade from her face, something about the way he had said that irked her, he wasn't her father or brother, in fact she barely knew him and he had hardly seemed too bothered to see her earlier that evening when his focus had all been on Carol.

But Beth quickly realised she was being ridiculous, Amy was gone, the bar was shut and she was all alone with a nagging irrational feeling that Gareth was going to show up any minute seeing as his hotel was just down the road even though she knew that was slightly ludicrous. But that so, she had still run out of options. Daryl was concerned about her now, that was all.

"Thanks," she hesitantly replied opening the door and getting in next to him, immediately comforted as she was hit with his strong masculine scent as she reached over to do up her seat belt, and it made her feel safe.

"My sister told me never to get into cars with strange men," she joked with a little flirty flick of her mouth and a sparkle in her blue eyes.

"Aint a strange man," Daryl grunted back, catching her eye through his long tousled hair with a smirk.

Beth looked away and her smile widened causing her dimples to appear on her pink cheeks.

"So, you wanna tell me what you were doing out there on your own?" Daryl asked more seriously as they drove away.

Beth sighed and ran a hand through her long hair, "I was with Amy, but she kind of ran out on me and now I don't know where she's gone and she's switched her phone off because she's mad at me. She's been dating this loser guy and I hope she hasn't gone running to him, because…." she broke off and chewed down on her thumbnail, she didn't really feel like giving Daryl the full explanation of what their falling out had been about, seeing as it had involved him.

"I feel like such a bad friend," Beth exclaimed blinking out the window, before she glanced over at him.

"You aint a bad friend," Daryl said kindly, resting his hand on the wheel. "But she's an idiot for going off like that."

"You think she's okay?" Beth asked in a panic. Something about the tone of his voice and his body language told her something was up. The way he had left the bar earlier too, something wasn't quite right, she could tell.

"She's probably fine, but I'll put a call in to Rick when we stop to check she got home okay, he's on duty now so either him or Tara can go over to her place," Daryl said, taking his eyes off the road for a second to look at her.

Beth gave him a grateful smile, she could tell he was trying to be helpful and he wanted her to feel better. But he was so difficult to read. One minute he was moody and standoffish and the next he was behaving like a big ol softie again. "She'll kill me," Beth muttered, thinking how Amy would react if Rick or Tara showed up at her place and woke up her parents, as if things weren't strained enough between them.

He didn't respond.

They drove on across the next stretch of the deserted country roads back to Beth's home in tense silence. Beth wanted to ask him what was up? Where he had been all night? She also wanted to ask him why he had met Carol, but she didn't dare. Daryl wanted to ask her who the guy was she had been with? But he didn't want to appear bothered. It was none of his business, all he was doing now was driving her home safely out of duty as there was a lunatic on the loose and some pretty weird fucking shit happening.

"There you go," Daryl grunted as he pulled up outside the Greene farm.

"Thanks," Beth replied hesitantly, glancing at the farm to see all the lights were off. She undid her seatbelt but she stayed where she was glued to her seat, not wanting to move yet. She looked over at Daryl and her averted her gaze. Beth felt a knot form in her stomach, he was different to how he had been with her on other recent occasions. Back in the woods going over the crime scene, and then the night back when the body had been discovered and she had stayed up talking to him and getting to know him, he had been more open with her. Now he seemed stiff and a little awkward again, like he was closed off.

"What's going on, Daryl?" she asked in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper, her wide blue eyes searching for his. That question had a double meaning.

He didn't reply but he met her gaze with a deep expressive stare.

"Something's not right is it?" she whispered.

Daryl swallowed hard, he had sworn to Rick he wouldn't mention anything to anyone about their conversation earlier. "We just all need to be extra careful at the moment," he eventually responded. "Shouldn't be anything to worry bout then," he tried to brush off.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she uttered in a delicate and sweet voice and fluttering her long lashes she kept her eyes on his rough and handsome face.

Daryl felt a tingle spread through him with the way she was looking at him, he was aware that she had inched a little closer to him now too, she was so damn close it was driving him a little crazy. She smelled perfect like strawberries and vanilla, so damn good he could almost taste her. They stayed like that for a second, before he retracted. He remembered how he had felt when he had seen her earlier on her date, and he wasn't about to make an idiot out of himself here. His guard had to be up.

Beth's face filled with disappointment, surely he could read the signals she was giving off? She liked him, more than a lot, the way her insides fluttered when he was near her and her body filled with a rush of electricity when he looked at her, it drove her wild. They were alone together now and it felt right to be close to him.

"What is it?" she asked shakily. "Have I done something to piss you off?"

His face twisted into a slight scowl that she even needed to ask that. "Nah," he shrugged.

"You didn't talk to me earlier either at the bar?' she questioned, not letting him off the hook that easily.

"You kinda looked busy," he grunted.

Beth's eyes suddenly widened as she realised he had thought she had been on a date with Gareth, that was it. But could he really be jealous? Was that was this was about? That single thought almost made her smile. He was pissed with her because he thought she was dating another guy.

"I wasn't," she explained. 'In fact I was trying to think of anything I could to get rid of that pushy drugs rep."

Daryl was silent still but he couldn't hide the relieved and slightly pleased look from his face, giving away his emotions. It had been a drugs rep she had been sat with, not a boyfriend.

"Honestly they try anything they can to get round me sometimes to get in with Andrea, but that guy was something else," Beth continued to explain.

Daryl shrugged, his face was serious but his eyes gave away the sudden rush of relief he was experiencing, taking himself by surprise with the effect this girl was having on him. He wasn't convinced making sales had been the only thing on that smug guy's mind, but Daryl was pretty satisfied that Beth wasn't interested in that, which was all that mattered.

They stared at each other for a moment more.

"It's late I should go," Beth said quietly.

"Yeah," Daryl agreed.

"Thanks again," Beth said and she leaned in quickly to kiss his stubbly cheek, and before she knew what she was doing with trembling fingers she reached for his hand too.

He didn't flinch or pull away, instead he welcomed her touch as he tightened her grip, linking his fingers in hers, inviting her to move into him further, and blood rushed around his body as he becoming charged with sexual awareness all of a sudden. Slowly and cautiously Beth moved her lips in to find his, her whole body trembling now as she moved her other hand up to touch his muscular bicep and she started to kiss him with passion. Daryl's hand gently caressed her lower back as he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss, just as his phone went off….

He broke away from her with a shy apologetic smile, "I have to.."

"It's fine," Beth whispered, blushing.

"Yeah," Daryl answered putting his phone to his ear, swiping at his hair with the back of his hand and trying to compose himself to take the call.

It was Tara and she was speaking extra loudly, _"Dixon, we need you, we got another body!"_

**_A/N - Thanks for reading! Please review if you want to read more as it helps to motivate me! Also a heads up to anyone not logging in to read, this story will be moving to an M rating in the next chapter or so :) Hope that's okay with everyone?_**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N - Thanks everyone for reviewing, if I continue to get good feedback I'll carry on with this. Also if anyone is up for being a sounding board or beta for some ideas and things, please PM me, I would really appreciate it. Thanks :) **

* * *

"Where?" Daryl asked, his voice low and serious as he experienced a sudden thud hit his insides, the news they had found another victim was not unexpected but deeply disturbing all the same.

From where she was sat inches away from him still, Beth bit down hard on her lower lip feeling her whole body tremble as her blue eyes wide and alarmed were fixed on Daryl's face. She studied his concerned facial expression carefully, his hair was falling down and into his eyes as he concentrated on what Tara was saying on the other end of the phone. _They'd found another body!_

"Okay," he concluded with a grim sigh as he ended the call. "I gotta go, I'm sorry," he said gruffly, as he turned his attention back to Beth and glanced at her worried face.

Beth twisted the hem on her dress as she opened her mouth to ask in a slightly shaky voice, "They found another one?"

"Uh-huh," he responded jerking his head.

"Oh no," Beth gasped, and her hand flew up to her mouth to hear him confirm it. "Whereabouts?"

"Past the river out back in the woods," Daryl explained sombrely.

"Thats on our land still," Beth exclaimed. It wasn't far from where they had found Lizzie. It was also where she rode her horse on a regular basis.

"Yeah, it would be," he agreed. "I need to get over there, but I'll see you home first," he added and he paused and looked away, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed. The initial shock from the call was fading and he was quickly remembering exactly what had happened just before his phone had interrupted them. He'd dropped his guard and allowed her to get close. He'd hadn't done that for a long time and certainly never in his new deputy role, or with someone as lovely as Beth.

"Let me come with you," Beth quickly said breaking the awkward silence growing.

"Nah," he said, flicking his hair out of his eyes. "You need to get home. It's late."

"I don't want to go home yet," Beth protested. "I won't be able to rest….It's our land, so someone from my family should go over there too and…Oh my god…." her face suddenly became pale, _"Amy!" _They had been so caught up in the moment since they had stopped that Daryl hadn't had a chance to put a call in to Rick and check she was okay.

"She'll be fine," Daryl mumbled awkwardly, unsure quite what he was supposed to say. He wasn't used to being so involved with young women and their reckless ways, he knew Amy's type and one way or another they usually ended up getting themselves into some sort of trouble. He just prayed that it wasn't the worst sort now and Andrea's younger sister and Beth's friend was safely back home.

"I want to go with you, Daryl…please," Beth pleaded. "I can keep trying her to check she's okay." Beth knew Rick and all his department would be too busy to check on Amy now, so she would need to get hold of her herself to confirm she was safely home and not in any trouble.

Daryl's features softened a little as he took in her distraught face and without saying another word he turned away to quickly start up the engine, he knew he would probably live to regret letting her stay with him, but he was quickly starting to realise that he just couldn't say no to the pretty blonde sat next to him right now.

"I'll try Amy's phone," Beth said as they sped away and over to the edge of the track leading into the woods.

Daryl just grunted in response as Beth put her phone to her ear to call her friend. It went straight through to voice mail and Beth's heart sank as she heard the bubbly sound of Amy's voice… _"Hi, you've reached Amy!"_

_"_Nothing?" Daryl asked, taking in Beth's tense body language as he brought the engine to a halt next to Rick's patrol car.

"She's not picking up," Beth sighed. She was starting to feel very uneasy. Something wasn't right.

Daryl stared at her for a second, before moving his head in the direction of the lights, "Come on," he said abruptly.

….

"That was quick," Tara said as Daryl approached the crime scene followed by Beth.

"Yeah," Daryl mumbled, not wanting to elaborate on exactly what he had been doing up in this neck of the woods to be have been able to have gotten here so quickly.

Tara's eyes slid over to Beth by his side, but she didn't comment on the blonde being there too. Whatever she was thinking she kept it to herself. "Rick's over there," Tara explained pointing towards the closed off section. Denise, the forensics specialist interrupted them to show Tara something and she turned away from Beth and Daryl.

"Wait there," Daryl said to Beth as he pulled up the tape to enter the closed off area and find Rick.

Beth nodded as she watched him. He had switched back into being assertive and in control, even though he wasn't on duty, she could see why Rick had given him a job, he was made to be strong and protect people, he couldn't be more different to his ass-hole brother.

...

Rick was chatting to one of the team when he looked up to see Daryl and his face filled with relief. "Thanks for coming," he said in a low and serious voice.

"No problem," Daryl responded, noticing the signs of distress on Rick's face he feared the worst.

"We got an anonymous tip off to come out here," Rick said. "Victims over there," he gestured with his arm to his right, holding up his powerful torch for Daryl to see.

Daryl squinted and glanced over to see to his dismay another gruesome murder victim. This one was very pretty and quite a bit older than Lizzie had been, she had pale ivory skin and delicate features like a porcelain doll and her long black hair matted with blood hung around her face. Her clothes were torn, and her hands were twisted into what looked almost like clawing motions. She must have put up some sort of a fight.

"Same marks as before," Rick explained flashing his light over the dead girl's body to highlight the parts that looked as though they'd had great chunks bitten out of them.

Daryl felt a knot form in his stomach, this was some crazy shit. He had never seen anything like it before and it was very disturbing. "You got an ID?" he asked. He had never seen the young woman before, so he doubted she was a local.

"No formal ID yet, but from the ID card we found on her we think she was Clara O'Malley, an Irish national. What she was doing over here, we can't say yet,' Rick stated. "Could be on holiday, or on a temporary work visa."

Daryl swept his eyes once more over the young woman's motionless body, her eyes red rimmed and alarmingly bloodshot were staring straight out in front of her, she looked like something out of a horror movie.

"You're with Beth?" Rick suddenly asked from where he was still standing next to Daryl and had looked over to where the young blonde was stood talking on her cell phone at the edge of the crime scene.

"Umm..yeah," Daryl replied awkwardly allowing his hair to hang over his right eye as he avoided looking at his boss. "Was giving her a ride," he explained.

Rick's eyes widened a little, but unlike Shane would have done he didn't smirk or make a big deal out of it, for which Daryl was grateful. Instead Rick just shrugged and said, "Good, she shouldn't be on her own right now."

"Yeah," Daryl grunted in response, he knew his boss and friend would think it none of his business what his reasons for being with Beth were.

"Listen, they're going to finish up here and take the body back to the morgue for a full post mortem. You reckon you could hang around there for a bit, while we go back to start making some calls, Shane is on his way in too," Rick said.

"Sure," Daryl nodded. He knew in this small town there was no such thing as off duty, if he was needed, he had to be available to assist Rick.

Rick moved away and Daryl moved back over to where Beth had moved a a little way back now into the shadows, to wait for him.

"Can I do anything?" she asked as he got nearer, her blue irises shining in the darkness.

Daryl swallowed as he took in her beautiful face, she wasn't his girl, but there was something there drawing her to him. He felt such a strong urge to protect her and he took a comfort from her presence too. It made him feel good.

"Nah, they're finishing up here and I'm needed back at the morgue," he replied in a low voice.

Before she could respond, Daryl's phone suddenly went off in his pocket, he pulled it out to see it was Carol, "I gotta take this," he mumbled and moved away from Beth for a second.

Beth's brow wrinkled in a little confusion, she had seen Carol's name as the screen had lit up in Daryl's hand and Beth was curious as to what Carol could want at this hour. From Daryl's expression it was clear he cared about Carol and something was up.

"Everything okay?" Beth asked as Daryl appeared by her side again in the darkness after a short conversation with Carol.

He nodded, he didn't really feel like explaining that he had agreed for Carol and Sophia to stop with him for a few nights. He hadn't really had a choice, he couldn't let them go back to Carol's abusive husband, and she didn't have anyone else she felt she could really open up too without judgement.

Beth didn't speak, instead she bravely took a step closer to him, she'd been a little unsure about his feelings towards her before this night, she had half wondered whether he viewed her as a silly girl that he took pity on, or someone he liked being around as a friend when the mood took him, but now she felt confident to get a little closer. They had kissed earlier in his car, and something told her that wasn't something he took lightly. It hadn't been just any kiss either, and it filled her with a rush of butterflies as she remembered how it had felt to have been that close to him. How his lips had felt on hers, she could still feel the scratch of his stubble on her cheek. She blinked as she wondered what he was thinking right now, whether he regretted it or whether like her, he wanted more. There was something about the present moment that was spurring her on, the horror and danger of the situation was making her crave his touch even more, in a weird way it felt almost exciting.

Daryl didn't say anything either as he slowly placed his hand on her waist, it was a bold move and one he certainly wouldn't have felt comfortable with before this evening, but right now it felt natural to him. He wanted her to know he didn't regret what had happened. He might be setting himself up for a fall, but from the way she she was looking at him right now, he knew he needed to give her something, a sign that he was there.

Beth felt lost for words still as she moved in closer to him from where they were partially hidden in the dark night, there wasn't anyone near to them and all she wanted at that moment was to feel him next to her. She pushed her body against his and lightly rested her head against his muscular shoulder. He smelled perfect, musky and manly, and she drank it in as she realised she wanted to get even closer to him.

Daryl moved his hand up to gently rub the small of her back. He'd wasn't ashamed to admit that he had many a dirty thought about the sweet blonde over the past couple of weeks, and he wondered what would have happened if they hadn't had been interrupted earlier in his car? He hadn't had sex for a while, and his body had been more than responsive to her touch. But he respected her too. She wasn't the kind of girl that you used for a quick screw in the backseat of a car.

"Guess I should make a move," he muttered into her soft blonde hair, it smelled of strawberries, flowers and sun, and it reminded him of summer evenings back when he'd been younger and he'd used to ride his bike out along the deserted country roads taking in all the fresh smells of summer, the only time he'd ever felt free and alive.

"Mmm.." she mumbled, not attempting to move away from him. She wished they were somewhere else, and she thought about what he would feel like underneath his shirt, what it would be like to lie with him naked, and a fluttering rushed through her as she wondered what might happen between them next now...

"Jeez…Beth, there you are," Beth suddenly heard Maggie say, and a flashlight shone in her face.

Daryl quickly sprung away from Beth as they both looked over to see Maggie and Glenn had appeared.

"We were so worried when you didn't come home and we heard there had been another incident, Daddy sent us out to look for you," Maggie exclaimed. Her relieved eyes moving from Beth to Daryl.

Daryl shot her a quick look through his hair and nodded in acknowledgement at Glenn.

"It's okay, Daryl was giving me a ride back from town when we heard the news," Beth explained hesitantly her big blue eyes sliding over to glance at Daryl.

"Right, well thanks deputy," Maggie said slightly suspiciously, but with a grateful undertone. She didn't really care who her sister was with as long as Beth was okay.

"I err.. gotta get back," Daryl mumbled in a low voice.

Beth shot him a disappointed look as he turned to move away from them, "Bye," she said quietly, her eyes expressing what she couldn't say, she didn't want him to go.

"Thanks again," Glenn said this time addressing Daryl with a genuine smile. Glenn was a good man and he was grateful to anyone that looked out for his family.

"Come on, Beth, we gotta get back,' Maggie said bossily to her younger sister.

"Stay safe," Daryl added in a gravely voice as he walked away from them into the distance.

"We will," Beth replied…..

**A/N - Thanks for reading please review if you can :) **


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